gaming Elena And Her Joystick

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Ahh~ video game stream. They're one of a kind unpredictable media where you can make an arse of yourself playing poorly, being badly skilled player and insist playing the said game repeatedly and hurt the audience eyes, laughing at your friend who make an arse of themselves in world eyes, laughing at random people for their own stupidity for mistaking X button for confirm and O button for cancel. I do admit that back in 2008, i wonder if there's some site where gamer can gather and show off skills which is where YouTube come for. And where we can show people that we really did that thing live which is where we come to livestream media such as Twitch. Speaking of Twitch...

"As name imply, twitching might lead you to do something unthinkable. Even the moderator"

My friend over there...
Why don't i tell you about my friend who migrate from Twitch to YouTube after the ban that so ridiculous, its almost a crime. So my friend here, let's call him Talas, had a small stream channel (now banned obviously) who find himself thrown to the water by the community, for the ban that kind of justified but mostly not. Let me ask you a question.

How long can you play a game for a day?

Right, keep that number and turn it into stream hours. So my friend here, he streaming DOTA 2 stream on twitch. Everything fine and beautiful until one day he receive a message that he was banned, for misconduct of health and safety. Obviously it baffle him. What did he do? All he had is just internet connection. He has no camera and mic to make him a proper streamer you see most of the time. Which part of his action that cause such accusation? Not him, not the game too obviously, and not the chat either since he's a small streamer with barely two digit viewer at best which he claim probably a bot passing by.

But its the stream duration.

Yes, imagine you got banned for playing just less than two hour, and they claim you were conducting safety and health hazard that doesn't even valid. Keep in mind this dude friend of mine doesn't have camera let alone mic to show and preach his "safety and health hazard" show. All he do is playing game which what Twitch are based of, and got banned for it for the conduct he didn't even do. And not just basic ban either, but perma-ban! I'm not kidding, he even had the email who told him he's banned for the safety and health hazard conduct ON THE SCREEN which we can point out, there's no mean for him to do that without, you know, ON-CAM SCREEN!?

Did Twitch going family friendly to an extent? Or streaming more than 2 hours can lead you to having radioactive infection which is why Twitch ban my friend for such taboo and i just don't know it? I mean sure back in the day i play my NES 2-3 hour a day after coming back home from school because my parent allow me to play longer only on weekend. But we talking about online stream here whose people average stream time is 4 hour in the least! Heck there's even a fundraiser stream that goes 24 hours; they didn't get ban at all! What is this madness!?

Seriously their bot sucks.

He did try to appeal but no avail. Luckily he had the chance to make discord before which he explain what happen and told the small audience he had in there that he's migrating to YouTube now. Though judged from how he carry on his new stream, he don't feel like doing it as much when he's on Twitch, saying that it felt like business when doing that on YouTube. I'm no streamer so i can't say much the platform feel like. 

And there you have it. Did you ever get kicked out to main menu in the mid-gaming and have to wait 24 hour to load your game when playing Elden Ring after two hour by your console/PC system? You can hold Twitch beer if its true.

Elena, Shutting off~

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Hey, let's make a sandcastle! With LEGO? Patch of sand in the box? Or building digital city where your advisor can be turned into Llama? No, i'm talking about city building game that i've grow up with for so long. I'm actually surprised my 12 years old brain got interested in this kind of genre when back in the day people either rave about Ragnarok, CS 1.6, or any console game (then again i have nothing but NES). City building game might be to blame for my personal liking to watch thing grow step by step because when the city i run become successful one, it was very satisfying. You manage to surpass the financial trouble, slowly fulfilling people demand, advisor no longer pulling their hair calling you wet prince of darkness (happen in SC3K if you didn't provide water and electricity). But thing is, this one game really pulling the rag off my feet and forever i feel the impact of the cold floor reality, that this series is over. But seeing how those publisher going, i say...good call?

"Ohh~ lovely! Until you saw the instruction down below. The moment you realize spicy critic thrown at you in the trailer video comment section and your thought were agreeing how right they were, then you really got problem"

What Is This?
SimCity also known as SimCity 2013 is a project in attempt of reviving the franchise after the long dormant time since SC Societies release (PC and DS alike). In doing so, the developer focus on basic building SimCity known best include the immersive management (Financial, aura, zone demand) and completely ditch the creative focus which SC Societies had. The core of the gameplay is similar with SC4 where player are given an large area called region, and could connect them to each different city of their creation. With that idea in mind, Maxis/EA think its best to give SimCity more UX by adding multiplayer city building mode which would put two different player growing city of their own region. It was sounds great on the paper, but the time of its release, things seems not as bright as it seems.

That DRM...
Let's kick the Elephant off the fridge first. When the player realize the game that basically a single player experience end up as must online game, player are not happy. When i know what's up, i wasn't happy either. It doesn't help the fact that the moment this game released, many player found themselves can't play it due to server full. MAXIS/EA admit they didn't expect the number to be that large so they fix the server issues immediately. On the side, we might see that the anticipation of the game are real which break MAXIS/EA expectation. This is common for every well known online game (FF online for example, you know what happen there). But turn out, that DRM, is just a cake and a lies.

Player Found Out This Game Can Be Played Offline Inside The Game Code
The cherry on top of this DRM nonsense turn to become salt to the wound when some player found out they can play the game offline despite only has access to it for 30 minutes before being kicked out. Added the fact that you can play offline and the save data of single player is inside the local file rather than cloud, player begin to scrutinize the DRM decision. But this is just the beginning.

Simplifying End Up Hurting The Core
When i pirate...yeah i said that, you can read that again. When i pirate the game and play it myself, i'm...baffled. When it come to playing SimCity, i always prepare for the easy financial ruin and other immersion that would get in the way. By immersion, i mean something like building road, water pipes, and Power plant. The latter is what feel very impactful to some player, me included. In most SC games, except Societies, in order to spread the electricity to the people, you have to build an electric pole. You can, of course, build a city without one by connecting powered zone to another area and only use electric pole if the part of the city you built is faraway from the power source/connection. In SC 2013, infrastructure were connected by road. You don't need to worry if your city look like tangled mess of cable anymore which might be nice, but to some extent, it kill the challenge point of what city building has. Even games like City Skylines and TheoTown of all thing, has this challenge when you start a city! Well we can excuse that by pretending your city build their connection underground...you know, TheoThown also has that feature but after your city growing...not at the start! This also reflect badly as MAXIS/EA back then decide to ditch the simplifying gameplay SC Societies had, only to have not just infrastructure, but most building coverage can be done by connecting it to the road. You know what make this even laughable? If you want to plant a trees, you have to connect it to the road. I am not kidding. No road? No building can be built. No really, everything even a trees!

Bland Theme
Looking back, SC Societies might be a bad apple of the franchise but even then, i still praise the release for having an idea of putting theme inside your city and not just one or two, but more than 5 type of a city! It's not a DLC too! If you feel like wanting to build a quiet farm town like you used to have in SC3K (don't try, its hard and random...), or in SC4, i said go ahead! But in 2013 you can only build tall white building because there's no farming zone or anything that encourage farming. And the only different theme you can made is Cyberpunk with Cities of Tommorow EP which...i can say i can live without it seeing how it make the game unnecessarily unbalanced and hard...

What You See Is What You Get
What make SimCity still standout and relevant among city building gamers is they have feature to break the boundary to fulfill their creativity. Knowing that factor, SC3K and SC4 has one vital part of their game feature that not much city building game had. Terraforming. Oh, did you don't like that lake? Flatten it! Don't like that mountain? Flatten it down! Oh, you want your lake back? Dig a hole, and wet yourself! Terraforming is a vital part of every sandbox city building which is why SC Societies got itself on short end of the stick when this feature were missing (there's one but its POORLY FUNCTIONING!). And for whatever reason, SimCity 2013 has this feature literally absent! So if you got yourself a region with wonky terrain, congrats, you can't do anything and have to build the odd angled city ever made. To add more insult to injury, unlike previous release, SC 2013 only has pre-made region. You can't make your own region like in SC4. Oh, did i forget to mention that the region is VERY limited?

That Limitation
In order to make the game enforce the multiplayer immersion, every region has setup of size of the city you can build. By doing so, you might end up building residential exclusive region in one area, and then commercial and industrial on another region. Seems nice by the book. but if you look at it, its make the game system broken. You might end up with a city that has low population since the region you got has the wonkiest terrain than others, which result half part of the area are not eligible to built anything on it to fulfill employment demand or vice versa. Like i said before, what you see, is what you get.

Self-Sufficient not included
Seeing the dependency of each region, its hard to maintain those type of city because let's just say you play on multiplayer, and you pair yourself with wonky city builder, you might find yourself at odd with your own shortcoming. Compared to TheoTown who has this kind of feature, there's still way to avoid such shortcoming by making it smaller and prevent it from growing. In SC 2013, the thrive of your city depend on your companion. Which suffice to say, they might lose interest on the first try most of the time (based from one blog poster experience i read). If you happen to be focus on commercial and industrial, i tip my hat on you because you got lowest income in the said district as most income coming from residential most of the time. By all mean, you might have to ask for the player at the said district to send you money...if they even still there to handle their own city. Oh wait, you can do it in single player, never mind!

So-called Sandbox
In Cities Skylines, you can either play it clean or with mod in their sandbox where everything has been unlocked or with infinite money. In TheoTown, the sandbox mode is really a place where you can goof off around your city building progress without much consequence. In SC 2013, the sandbox only offer a large sum of money. While its nice to have lot of bucks for starting up, you later find out the natural source you can turn profit on, is finite. Let's just say that there's region with oil source, you won't be able to take it out forever once it dried up. It might be nice as it would become challenge to find other source of income. But thing is, this is sandbox mode! If everything is remain finite with just bucks of money on hand...well...WHAT'S THE POINT OF SANDBOX THEN!?

All in All...
DRM BS, lazy feature, wonky UX, backpedal decision of creativity, oversimplifying things, region that not balanced, wonky RCI demand, useless add-on, bland theme, enforcing something that shouldn't be enforced, ignoring the core game that should be enforced, and the dumpster fire of a game as final nail to the coffin. Its a shame. This game honestly, released in pretty much decent state. Even afterward, the dev release the patch to fix algorithm of the traffic and AI directory which make the game more bearable. I find many city building game but i never once forget this one. Not because its bad but because this game concept are great similar to SC Societies; its jarring but the idea is there and work as intended. Its just that the project were aimed toward multiplayer because, if you forgot, the game are published by the publisher who believe single player experience is dead which might play the part why they make the game online.

I even heard rumor that when the dev heard to make this game to be online, they thought EA talking about mobile game but no, they talking about make it on PC. They know how to make proper SimCity from scratch no problem. But they never make online game before. This cause many issues in the end and proving more that EA should know better of their development team capability; either they let other team handle the online feature, or just scrap that plan altogether and let the game play as it should. Just because they know their way around, doesn't mean they are miracle worker. Remember BioWare and Anthem? Yes, this is just another example way back before Anthem.

Elena, shutting off~

[Elena Ichinomiya]

You know. I always said that i don't find myself liking Square Enix games since the day i touch joystick for the first time. I admit they do some piece of work back then even before 3D era come in. But i never find myself wanting to buy their game let alone pirate them for whatever reason. Nier Automata? I shun it. FF series? I completely oblivious to it. Kingdom Hearts? I'm not into it much aside from the Disney character presence. I might seems like a person who hate whatever anything with Square Enix logo in it, and i won't blame you because sometime i felt the same way. But that aside, i never think any less of Square Enix as a whole even after all this year (beside their NFT and piss poor mobile game management). However i came to term with another game publisher that surprisingly out of blue, striking my mind that i should hold myself from buying their game. Unlike my feeling toward Squre Enix, there's hint of distaste in my tongue about this company.

"Yes, they changing logo. And you think new Street Fighter logo isn't the only joke that exist. Is visual designer these day really come in cheap? What is the artistry meaning in that Twitch-like logo? Heck even Twitch logo has meaning of their color and icon! Fun for all into the future? More like Fun for All into the repetitiveness!"

The Trigger
If you saw me around ED Discord server, i did state it openly that i want to hold my wallet to buy anything from this publisher. Not because they do me wrong or something horrible has happen inside the studio. But the experience i had with their product. Ever since Tekken 6 release, i begin to think that Bandai Namco is cutting corner their own IP which i actually don't mind, but not when it cause the gameplay value to get rusted way too quick. Not saying Tekken 6 is bad game mind you; its great game, but they lack of replay value that Tekken 5 had. Yes, i'm talking about the game mode. But compared to Tekken 7, i still find more fun in 6. When i play Tekken 7 and done with everything even after playing/learn various character move, that's it. Only for me to realize they cut the corner too much that they insult the player with DLC of statistic screen...its a legacy feature, heck, its a freaking basic feature on every game! Even DOA 6 isn't cut that much of corner. Sure TECMO/KOEI losing their mind for charging people 1 dollar to change hair color, but at least hair color is only cosmetic that you can get by. Statistic screen is vital in practice mode to know where your attack land and their damage!

Shots Fired
Moving on, do you know God Eater? Yes, that alternative Monster Hunter that is far easier and has ability to play offline with AI company. I've play this game since its PSP days. And i like it. Yes, i like that game despite its sluggish performance though the PC version kick that issue out of the window. What about God Eater 2? Absolutely liking it. Story might be corny, but i can chew on it and move on because, hey, Bandai Namco love anime trope stuff even if it make the story tend to get nonsensical. However i'm not completely ignoring the fact that Bandai Namco seems to get a bit rusty here. They recycling the stage over and over for starter, and some monster making a comeback which is nice, but it strip away God Eater 2 value as sequel. Sure its nice to give a throwback to the prequel, but they overdid it too much. Its almost similar to Dragon Age 2 issue where everything is recycled. At this point, i begin to think Bandai Namco had creativity crisis. But i shrug it because it happen. And maybe because God Eater 2 initially released on PSP, they don't think much about adding more value to the sequel. At the end of the day, you might find yourself feel like playing God Eater 1 but with God Eater 2 character slapped on it.

The Missing Mark
Still about God Eater 3, when i manage to get my hands on it, i feel excited. New environment, new character, new monsters to fight with little throwback at the later stage which is nice. The anime trope story and character still there though. In any case, i applaud Bandai Namco attempt in making the said sequel because this is what i expect from God Eater 2 when they released. It seems to be paying off. But i have to remind you, i play this game way in its early release. No side story about the flashback or challenge. Yes, back then, the challenge mode doesn't exist. That sure is a kick. Moving on, while the change of pace and environment is nice, i find the story is another recycle from GE1 and that's not good. I keep saying that if you really want to make a kid as cataclysm in storyline as many anime action theme tend to use, make sure everything in that universe are not entirely tied to them because it make the story flow become easily predicted. But Bandai Namco doesn't seem to be aware and this get into my head that they would repeat this process again and again. Sure storyline isn't a focus in God Eater, but what they have to say about their recycling trope? It doesn't bode well. The game at least working as intended, no bug or glitches and i even manage to get rank 7 weapon on each category. But the real kick start now...

Kick On The Shin
Code Vein and Tales of Arise. Yes, this two game is a few nail to the coffin for me toward Bandai Namco. Code Vein use same engine used in God Eater 3, yet they feel more immersive. I don't mean about the polished look but rather how the scene were executed. Compare Code Vein cutscene and God Eater 3 cutscene, it was like sun and moon right off the bat. Code Vein has intense scene put into it whenever there's one. But in god eater, it was so stiff that you would find every single people in the cutscene, always standing up straight. To add more kick, every single character in God Eater 3, had cardboard expression even when the scene demand them to act accordingly, though not as worse as GE2 but then again that game is using old engine. But still, that's not a good sign for me toward Bandai Namco effort in the game. Because i bought both Code Vein and God Eater 3. Both show how much Bandai Namco take their priority too far and not very subtle about it.

As for Tales of Arise, i didn't own the game yet. But knowing they run in similar engine in perfect motion, it only put salt on the wound. I'm not saying i'm being salty that GE3 development being cast aside like a prototype. It happen to other game company too. But what actually annoy me is...why they holding back? If they can at least just make the cutscene just as smooth and properly like Code Vein do in the first place, i won't make much fuss. But they did. Just try play the game, i won't blame you for skipping every cutscene due to how poorly the cutscene were executed. Keep in mind, that game...is on next gen console...yet they're made as stiff as if its for PSP VITA game!

Before we move on, i want to make this clear, i got no burn toward Tale of Arise and even think about buying it. But seeing how Bandai Namco newly bad habit of cutting corner of their product, i have my doubt. 

The Delisting And Licensing Problem
Sword Art Online! Demon Slayer! Naruto! Dragon Ball! Jump Series! Err...Fast and Furious Crossroad! Yeah, those license is surely pricy as heck. But apparently, Bandai Namco realize they eat more than they can chew. While Naruto and Dragon Ball game seems to afloat nicely, the rest is doubtful. Bandai Namco notice the decline of Sword Art Online which is why they seems to holding another release. Demon Slayer, while perform great, are nothing but Naruto Storm clone if not a reskin for some. Dragon Ball series seems to be shrinking at the moment. And then we got Fast and Furious and Jump Force; both game that were delisted way early than their other licensed game. Not only because they perform poorly, but because Bandai Namco realize they got too much on their plate to keep the plate spinning.

But by delaying any release of the licensed game, it would mean no income for Bandai Namco to extend their license contract on the said series. Sword Art Online is the first one who had this issue. You might think that the DLC costume of SAO is a way to ads the said game. Which might be true at some point, but it also way to "ask" you to give them extra money so they can extend SAO series license for themselves. I don't mind that seeing Bandai Namco didn't mistreat the series like EA toward Star Wars, but clearly their many license is caught on fire. Moving on, the Demon Slayer game seems doing great, however what i feared the most in Bandai Namco habit is happening. They recycle the system. I mean sure, its fine if you want to go that way seeing there's not much to go on when it come to fighting game other than put yourself in the ring and beat each other till sunset, but the player notice the clone game they get is lacking punch needed to make the licensing worth the trouble. I can't say much since i don't own the game but the hype and interest toward the game died down faster compared to other fighting game. Keep in mind many company tried to make Naruto game but only Bandai Namco manage to make it came on top despite the anime series lack of spotlight back in the day, so this is no excuse. At least Demon Slayer is a newly contracted license by Bandai Namco so i think we can get that behind. 

Jump Force and Fast and Furious Crossroad, however, are not that lucky. Seeing the game received mixed reception, with the latter got overwhelmingly negative in game store or game critic site, this put final nail to my decision to get away from Bandai Namco for a while. The reason both of them got delisted is because it impacted by the fact no player traction coming in and fans roast it for the piss poor and way too simplified immersion, and as a result, less net profit, which pummel down more by the licensing price that keep getting higer. Some source even said that the costly license they ever paid is Yu-Gi-Oh! license from KONAMI. Jump Comics run many successful comics across the year which make Jump Force cost of development is not a chump change. They have to license character of each series to make this work like Naruto, Dragon Ball, One Piece, JoJo, Black Clover, My Hero Academia, Samurai X, Hunter x Hunter, City Hunter, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and many more title. Seeing many license, its obvious that Bandai Namco set their stake really high for Jump Force. But in the end, it didn't put much traction. Its not a flop judged from the number of sale, but the audience lack of interest in this release is a sign that this would become long shot to keep. Had the game at least manage to release their Season Pass 3, that would cover their financial to extend the contract for each series. But market decide, its not worth the trouble. They could keep the game on store shelves but that mean they have to shill their own pocket money to get that chance. Its clear that Jump Force is deemed the worse Jump series release ever and that kind of critic won't do well.

What's my opinion in this? Bandai Namco should know better that fans want this game to be success too. But they keep missing the mark and that's not good. Instead fixing and balancing the gameplay, they release new character that serve as another game breaker, followed with lack of customization of our own OC which make the character making doesn't worth a dime even compared to lackluster customization in Soulcalibur 6 (i own this). Even the game immersive value were far worst than Tekken 7 and Soulcalibur 6 combined. At least what Tekken 7 and Soulcalibur 6 lack in immersion is the lack of game mode and character introduction; but that didn't impact core gameplay once you started. But Jump Force is mix of both. Everything seems rushed, the plot were too ordinary, OC creator isn't worth the trouble, and of course, broken mechanic. Its ironic really, i always though Bandai Namco is the father of fighting game, a true gem in that field. At least the lack roster of Jump Force would be easily cast aside if the core gameplay didn't cause player to bleed out. I saw the gameplay on YouTube and i can tell why. Only in Jump Force, you can cheese (attack using same move over and over) without any way to interrupt once hit. In Tekken, you got parry to break the combo. In SoulCalibur, you got parry and Ukemi (recover in mid juggle or right after touching the ground). Jump Force doesn't have that, making it easy for you to predict where the game goes and even more so in online match. To add more salt, this game is also Naruto Storm clone. When you think recycling a good system can cut many corner, it doesn't add up if the game core is poorly implemented. Wanna see one? Just look up the victory screen. Everyone laugh like maniac, yet they stand there, comically. Nah, Namco Bandai, that's not how you end a fight. 

As for Fast and Furious Crossroad...i would say they got delisted once they find a good reason to. And probably the license of the title got expire and the dev think it ain't worth it to shill your wallet to keep bad game float. Yeah, there's that. See? Just because you have collaborative works with great title and a company, it doesn't always result in great product. 

In The End...
I admit Elden Ring success is worth applause, i admit that i drool over Tales of Arise visual and possible lore it has, and i even admit that Scarlet Nexus look like the game for my taste so much that i almost pirate them. But knowing i had receive much kick around the corner after GE3 release and so on...i seriously doubt putting money on their plate is the right choice at the moment. For me at least. If you enjoy the game Bandai Namco release, i'm happy for you. But for now, i opt to look the other way. I ain't put money on game that fully released in state of cutting corner. I mean sure many triple A game did that so they can release the said cut-out as DLC. But Bandai Namco isn't that kind of company as far as i care. So whatever the stuff they release, i would say it was intended to be that way. And i don't like it.

Elena, shutting off~

Edited May 18, 2023 by Elena Ichinomiya

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Login integration! Sounds familiar to many of you isn't it? I bet many mobile game you play at the moment use that sweet G icon at the bottom on every login screen, or setting it to automatic sign in with the said integration. Honestly though, i rather make my own account so i know the passwords i just set it in but as the matter of fact, its just an alternative way to do things and no harm done. Say, how many game you played and which account you just use most of the time? Google? Line? Twitter? Kakao? Or game account itself? 

Surely you don't use this as your integration as of today...

"To be fair...i only use my FB account to play shady mobile game. I'm surprised i'm not hacked to this day"

Before We Start, Have My thought about Meta...
It sure take my sweet time to say my thought about Meta. Meta is ridiculous if not outdated concept, there, i said it. Social hub? Runescape and WoW has that. Social hub where you can interact with your hand instead mouse and keyboard? VRChat been there done there for years since day one of VR headset boom (heck they even had Desktop mode). Social hub where everyone gather and bitching? GTA online already there and you can kill everyone in sight for a twist! Look, the moment i know Meta concept, it take me long time to get the purpose of this thing. Yes, i'm slow learner, bear with me. The moment that man explain what Meta plan is, i begin to scratch my head. We already have those since early FB days! Remember Habbo hotel? I kid you not, i play that game back in the day. If that sounds little too far fetched, how about IMVU? Or second life? Sure they don't use VR headset, but the concept are not that different! You walk around, you talk to people, you do things, you interact with things, being silly together, being racist together, being pervert together, we already have those space, why Meta make themselves act like a new big kid around corner is beyond me. Its like you kick the door open and said there's gravity in this world that pull us down to earth, well no crap Sherlock, you're genius for helping people to evolve by stating the obvious. And this is apply to Meta for me. Its not special, it look outdated, the main purpose of it is already exist everywhere, and if its anything new, its just another scheme made by a man who realize he just invest on something that doesn't sell well but still kicking it anyway.

Keep in mind FB- i'm sorry, i mean Meta had bought an Oculus company back at VR boom. Noticing the bubble didn't last, this might be another attempt to get you buy their headset which has ridiculous price of package nearing the price of PS4 on first day release (keep in mind they sold in form of package). Now this might sound like ads but i'll say this now. You better screw around Playstation Home using their PSVR headset than Oculus Meta. Not because they're better product, but their social hub is far more well established. And apparently no complaints made with their headset too.

Do i have to go on length to tell you Meta has terrible visual? Look, the moment i saw many people attempting Meta, i thought they complimenting Roblox graphic. No shade, no polished texture, everything simplified. I don't know about you but it make Meta feel like they made for potato computer. Sure its fine to give such performance boost so people with decent gear can still enjoy it, but they clearly forgot that VR focus is make people feel the immersion of what they see! I ain't buying 3 digit bucks of an headset just so i can see Tetris block up close! Heck even Tetris these days have more texture on each block!

And let's not forget that everyone there look like Amiibo, but worse. Another thing is, why the world/instance people try Meta is always either too contrast or too dark? What kind of appeal they offer here? Oh screw this, just go fool around VRchat, at least they have murder theme game and overcook clone VR. At least everything there has texture...and legs!

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FB integration is getting problematic...
I won't flaunt this around much, it could be just happen around my region only after all. Since last month, my friend talking about how they skip a day in their online game because they can't login to the game. Not because there's maintenance, but because FB refuse to log them in. I had such issue before and you probably can find it on internet to get your way around it. But no avail, they still not able to login. What make things ridiculous is even when my friend manage to login, the app didn't integrate their account to login, but instead, it login as if they using FB app instead!

How you do integrated login? Click an icon, wait for small window pop up, enter ID and password (or choose account if you use Google), give permission, done. But instead those process, those small window end up move to their FB home page instead verifying the login access! Boy! I ain't playing EveryTown using FB account for playing FB in those tiny pop up window! God dimwit!

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Many Game Pull The FB Integration Option For A Different Reason
But its still there. Yet nothing going to show or just plain crash the app. I had this issue back in the day when the Chinese online game i played announce that they will pull out Google login after their privacy update and told the player to integrate their account to other mean of access like FB or Twitter. But despite the issues, many game still stick their G icon on login screen and you can still work it out to login. However many game i played since 2016 had their FB login removed. I wasn't surprised really, the company been sink under about privacy issues. 

But as i stated before, any game with that button attached either won't work or just crash your phone. No notification whatsoever. Just hit you back to home page. But turn out, its not because the game service pull the plug on it and forgot to remove it from screen. It is indeed still available option for logging in, but the crash part is also part of the login integration! Not only you had trouble to login, you basically had to gamble if today the FB integration gonna screw itself on you! This of course, cause many report sent to game developer who receive report about FB login issue. And no, its not their fault. They put it as intended but the reason of crash is because the game server fail to contact FB server despite they were connected and for unknown reason, it force the game app to shut down instead closing their login window. Now keep in mind i'm not talking about just one game. Even if its just a few number, if they had similar issue of putting a keyhole to get themselves in, its not coincident!

Rather than having a headache of playing waiting game for FB team to get it together, the dev decide to remove those button as long as those issues remain, turning FB into even more unreliable source of networking. Seriously, i'm not surprise anymore seeing login integration for gaming these days is Twitter, Google, LINE, and in some cases, KAKAO. No FB button in sight.

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All In All...
Like i said, this issue might only happen around my region. No news outlet reporting this so i would say this is just another local rainstorm. But still, if they even struggle to make integration login works, i doubt they even manage the account used in their site is even safe to begin with. Come to think of it, my FB account were bind with my old hacked email. I was about to change it but keep forgot about it before completely give up on FB after their decline. Thank god i didn't do that, my GMail account might be compromised!

Its really bad. I won't talk about the stock market and their crime but FB seriously getting irrelevant and become hard to understand where they try to aim. When they made FB game room back then, they made it clear that they want to make it easy for people to play social game, but turn out it don't even work to begin with as their app lack something that should've been there : chat feature. What kind of social game app that doesn't even had lobby chat feature? At least make it friend only chat is good enough. And if you want to share some score and stuff, you end up opening a browser window to share those stuff manually but after you login. Aren't those app is already integrated? Why we need to login again!? At least confirmation like Steam verification would be nice, but no, they want you to type your email and password again. Why make an app that basically butcher the essential feature then!?

Its bad. Very bad. I would suggest you use your 2nd email account for integration for ease of access. At least Google know what they doing. Oh and give PSVR a try, most review about them seems decent than other headset. I said decent, not the best around. 

Elena, shutting off~

[Elena Ichinomiya]

My words, i can't believe i'm gonna say this about EA. Despite their wonky effort on BF 2042, i had to commend them to keep their The Sims community in check without offending anyone or angering anyone like BETHESDA did with their not-gonna-work mod hub in order to keep their content to their liking. To be fair though, EA for some reason never think of anything about capitalizing mods since day one up until Sims 4 much to my surprise. This is where i take notice that EA did give the modder some lenient to the modder in their community guideline before they upload their mod. But it seems that maybe, just maybe, this is the first time where the community was broken by their own member stupidity and greed. Guess the apple doesn't fall off too far from the tree which is so much true at this point. And they really testing EA capability to handle things that go down. Which they always did in some way.

"It only take one misstep to bring whole foundation down. You don't chew the hand that feed you let alone the one who let you use their tools to play with. I won't ask what were they thinking, but instead i ask did they even thinking?"

How EA keep The Sims modder in check
First of all, let's get to know how The Sims community never catch themselves on fire before the storm hit. They're not like BETHESDA penny pincher mod club incident, or ACTIVISION/BLIZZARD crappy copyright rules about custom content that's for dang sure. You can find those community around and even personal blog for downloading their content directly on their site. It never get old for me who still play Sims 3. 

When people create mod, they basically tinkering with the source code or model resource based on the game database which obviously not owned by them. You only own your creative design, not the complete content functionality as a whole. This is why game company would enforce their modder to never capitalize their mods in anyway as it would as equal as stealing and not to mention, a copyright infringement. However what make The Sims community flow is because EA set the rule that seems fair for every modder who want to create mod of their game either voluntarily, or with sweet cash on their tipping jar. Here's how it works.

• EA allow you to capitalize your mod in a way assuming you follow these rules.
  • You are not allowed to put your Sims mod/custom content in complete paywall as it break the copyright infringement of the source code by capitalizing it outside their consent (Important!)
  • Should you put it on paywall, you were asked to make it temporary and then release it as free content later (ex. giving early access to download the said mods/custom content to your Patreon folks and then release it as free content week later)
  • If you decide put your content free to download since day one and wondering if its allowed to put "tipping jar" link such as Patreon on the content page description, get this, EA wouldn't mind that at all.
• To put it simply, if you create mod and never in a way trying to make claim of full profit out of the source code, you'll be fine.
• No, EA didn't ask for a single penny out of you even if you had Patreon page attached to your mod/custom content 

Guess some greedy billionaire do have standard who to pick off...

The First Sign Of Trouble
As you might expect from those who use method #2, some modder just went all the way to hold their precious stuff longer than a week. Some even hold out their content becoming free release up for month. That's not very nice. It is later found that many modder doing this kind of stuff a lot and despite the disgruntled opinion...

No One Call Them Out
The reason is not because someone is sleeping with who. But rather the creation of the said naughty modder did have great quality in visual and how game changing it was. The community feel it would be a loss to report such modder out because such mod are hard to come by and not many people try their hands on it (especially script mods). So without EA knowing, the community hold their tongue when they should've been reported long time ago. But as wise man said : "The bigger the lies, the bigger the trouble"

The Modder Shot Their Own Foot For Being "Selfish"
It is common method to those who feel disgruntled by temporary paywall of their favorite content by looking the other way. This doesn't bode well with modder who were ratted out of their profit out of their tipping jar. But instead fixing their attitude for hogging their content for too long behind paywall, they did add some spice to their content so they would get caught. If you find it justified, sorry to say, even EA don't find the method legal as it equal to harassments. What did those modder do? They add malware to their content who can detect if you're indeed taking it from their Patreon page or third party. Those who download it legally, will have smooth ride. Those who don't, will have their personal information leaked for the modder (and maybe their army too) to bully those pirate. Some might blame its the third party site who plant those malware, but those modder follower quickly overruled it as they turn their back against the modder when their malware content cause their game to malfunction and had to reinstall even though they download it through legal means. That's some way to lose election; give them a toy, then break their it down!

The modder basically raising red flag with their own hand. One, they capitalize their content longer which won't sit well with EA. And two, they promoting harassments regardless of the reason. And three, they put malware which obviously bad thing to do in the first place. Seeing this modder ain't worth protection, the community report them. But neither does anyone know it would become a whole domino that turn on each other and bring their downfall.

Once the smoke were caught EA attention, the modder find themselves have nowhere else to run...

EA Abolish Those Modder And Possibly Sue Them For Infringement
No one is a big fan of Billionaire. And certainly, no one ever wish to be sued by a billionaire. As the modder realize they went too far and their excuse for keeping their creativity behind the paywall were overturned by both disgruntled community and EA itself, they went all the way to defend themselves on their social media. It also involve big name too such as ANTO and RoBurky, both are custom content creator and script mods maker although it wasn't clear if they part of the malware mafia or not. However, once EA smell the rotten egg, they have the greenlight to abolish the creator out. Just for once, EA did the right thing, for the right reason, and has right to do so. But those are nothing compared to the modder who clearly need to learn, that copyright logo on any brand, mean something big will happen if you mess around it...

Modder Got Themselves In Trouble With Versace 
Gucci, Versace, Seiko, Mercedes. Any big brand name you can think of, Sims modding community has those likeness of content ready for you. You might think, there will be a lot of sue going when the storm hit. But there's nothing come out of it at all because the modder aware that they can't capitalize an unofficial content with big brand name on it. However one modder clearly losing their head as they found themselves in hot water with Versace as their content clearly copy the design of their product. The brand wouldn't bat an eye seeing many people make the content based of their product. But it become problem because this clumsy modder put those content as full paywall content. Not as early access or tipping jar kind of monetization, but fully paywall as if it were official content. 

You went to far Johnny! Now hit the deck and wash those John to earn your keep so you can hire that lawyer in blue suit!

The Sims Community Show Their Teeth Against Malware
As mentioned, the malware put on the content can cause the player suffering gameplay issues or outright bullied on the internet. But as every code of malware, false-positive will always happen. Some people report they have their personal information leaked despite the fact they download the content legally, some even said they got misfired by bully who has their name branded as pirate of their favorite creator content. Seeing the flame is out of control, some content creators voluntarily download the said malware content, clean it up, and reupload it as free content. It might led them in trouble with original creator later but hey, who's fault it is in the first place? And what can those malware uploader can do if they make their stand anyway when the evidence shows their own stupidity for profit? And the said community itself can't be bothered much as they busy themselves with their crusade cleaning the malware content. And afterward, The Sims Community live on their routine as usual. To those who in hot water are either gone for good, hide under different identity, sit themselves in court, or just plain abolished from their revered status.

Everything Considered...
I know this might be rather old news but as i mentioned before, i rather hear the update until its solid enough to talk about rather than reaching for thin air. But that aside, i'm surprised despite their questionable move on every game release, EA community guideline on The Sims community is pretty much fair for everyone. We know how modder put scathing opinion toward BETHESDA crappy workshop back in the day for capitalizing something that underwhelmingly useful in unfair price (keep in mind even their game launcher is crap-fest include their game portal to the point they choose to shut it down). And let's not forget the childish obsessive Blizzard/ACTIVISION with their policy of custom content which dictate every content you make for Warcraft Refucked, its design and everything will be their copyright. You left with nothing but exhaustion. Ohh~ Valve sure put salt on them when they improvise DOTA to capitalize do they? 

I have to commend EA for keeping their community rule as lenient as it goes knowing modder can be rather nit-picky if they were nudged too much when they did nothing wrong. On the other hand, i also praise The Sims community to keep things together even though there's no payback given. Clearing malware mod  to save community? Jenkins sure can retire in peace. To me personally, The Sims community people is basically a proof that great community isn't consist of just good content; but also filled with people who care about its existence.

After all, if you love something, then take care of it!

Elena, shutting off~

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Game sequel could be exciting thing to be had. But often time, it can spell doom to the game series for various reason. I'm not saying that some game are better off without, but clearly we live in a time where every game developer need to know that they can't deliver greatness just by putting oven food on the wedding buffet and expect everyone to be happy with its taste. Creation take time and well thought plan. If that mean i can play the sequel game 5 years later just to get it polished, trust me, i take those chance. Look here, if you spend literally 70 bucks for a game that not only didn't work, but has twice sized day one patch at the time after purchase and didn't fix anything in it, you deserve to throw the table. While the one i talking about this time is not a sequel whatsoever, it still serve as kick to the shin.

"I had one of those irritating fighting game. But never though in my life cycle i would play boring fighting game...on next gen console, by triple A game company, with triple A price!"

This...game...yeah this game is the next installment after MVC 3 release. While the game seems to be build from ground up for next gen console era, it only kill what matter to the player and the game itself. I almost don't believe this is an actual release. I mean just look at the visual. And then compare it to MVC3. Don't go with MVC 2 yet, just try compare it to MVC 3 and you'll see why. Visually not stunning, every fight feel rather sluggish than Street Fighter, the character just there to exist, and i may assume this release was made just to chase the popularity of Marvel Avengers Infinity Wars movie at the time. Don't believe me? Then play for it yourself, you bloody try! Even with stone system, you would bet it didn't give much immersion of fighting game, other than being put there for...i don't know, give Thanos a reason to be in the game?

Speaking of existence, you can see the poster above that someone- pardon me, i mean one vital representative were missing despite the fact that he's been there since the first franchise. Yep, no wolverine. Not even Storm or Deadpool is in the game. Some said its because of licensing issue at the time but when another news hit the mark that the producer claimed the reason no X-Men character included were because no one want to play them. Yes, i kid you not, that's what the producer claimed. Which we know its total BS and only proven that the developer doesn't even try to negotiate the licensing.

Speaking of visual, i can't really shake this one off. MVC 3 might be seizure inducing at one point in game, but it was made for the purpose to make the visual look appealing. The comic-like shading, the post-battle comic style quotes, unique UI both in main menu and character select, everything were snuffed out in MVC Infinite to be as generic as 1999s arcade game that doesn't appeal anyone. I don't know why they did that when it make the game still as hunk as it is to download. Seriously, i don't get it. What's the point of good looking Venom muscle when it kill the game appeal entirely? I rather miss out this visual than missing Wolverine or Deadpool as character.

"Have you ever see Devil May Cry 4 prototype of Dante? Yeah, this visual remind me of it. Are those Dante or Henry Townshend from Silent hill 4!? Are those supposed to be Chun-Li or SoulCalibur custom character?"

Its total kick really. The MVC 3 (on the right) get the feels of each character despite the comic-like shading. But the MVC Infinite (on the left) kick all of it and use all new render that doesn't capture any charm of each character. I know building something from grown up can be taxing but if it make one step forward and ten step backward as result and you decide to give it a whirl anyway, you really got problem. In the end, this is NOT working in anyway to capture the comic atmosphere feels in the game.

Do i have to tell you how much of a character available in MVC Infinite? They have 30. MVC 3? They had 51 include DLC. Want another kiss of death? MVC 2 which was released way back in 2000 arcade and console, has 56 characters on it! Now you know why i said this game is ten step backward! Did the producer or director know what this franchise existence mean? I mean, having lost big chunk of X-Men alone is already enough kick and even more so to the series from both side that need better spotlight. And they decide to cut it for the sake of "Player don't even know X-Men is compared to Guardian of Galaxy" statement? Wanna know something idiot? I don't even know Guardian of Galaxy and its universe compared to X-Men even as the recent release of its movie. 

It's already a a kick to the face to have your favorite character not included in next installment. But to have nothing but ridiculous reason to remove them from roster in the first place completely, not even as DLC later on, they really got problem.

Now before i rant on about what the hell running on developer mind, let me tell you my gameplay experience.

It's awful. The end.

...

...

Okay, sit tight, i'll do my best to make this as crash course but no promise. Seriously, when you think Tekken 7 story mode is cheap, this game should know better. The game feature basic gameplay mode from Arcade to Multiplayer game and challenge.

However the game quickly slap you with a cinematic cutscene as this franchise release feature a story of the game universe. What's the big deal you ask? Simple, there's no such thing in previous release. They add it here just for the sake of existing since the story was way too painful to watch and consumed. What make this even more bad thing to be had is, unlike previous release, the game has no individual ending for each character. When you win, you only greeted with "You're Winner" kind of screen and booted back to main menu. Where's the pride and achievement? I don't know. Down there maybe?

And my words, as i mentioned at the first line, this game is sluggish than first Street Fighter arcade! I know Capcom had a hand in this but this is terrible! I remember when playing as Venom, i feel like floating on every jump. This won't bother some of people but in some cases like online play, it make it easy to predict your next movement! The pace are also way too sluggish as you can't chain combo as much like MVC 3. If you find ANY gameplay video of this game, just speed it up to 1.25x speed because that's what the game should be like! Is this their attempt to pander the gameplay hour!?

And the fighting system is also downgraded. This game released for PS4 and XBOX One, a next gen console at the time, yet they release the gameplay as 2 v 2 tag team instead 3 v 3. Sure the first three is 2 v 2 but that's because the hardware limitation! What's holding them back!? If wonky PS3 can manage the gameplay with 3 v 3 system, why they take step backward for it? Exciting gameplay? Yeah that...

The infinity stone is a side joke. You can use them if you want to or just ignore them completely just for the heck of it. I think this is the reason why the game went 2 v 2 instead so you have reason to use an ability that actually didn't impact the gameplay at all. Is it fun to use even for advantage reason? No, its a pace breaker. Injustice has similar pace breaker but they make it tolerable with interactivity to add so its not just there to break the game. 

Speaking of break the game, in case you play the game and didn't notice, the game by default had their auto-combo on. Yes, a fighting game that already simplified in the first place by its predecessor get another nerf to the point i question what's the purpose to make this fighting game when the main focus most of the fighting game is BUTTON COMBINATION!? You can turn it off but don't say i didn't warn you it won't make much different with the janky pace of gameplay.

Any other interference that bother me but can easily toss aside? There is. Its voice acting. The voice are alright, but not once or twice i found myself thinking the voice actor doesn't even want to do their job.

And by the way, i didn't bother buying the DLC. Look, if you hate something, why give them your money?

Alright, now that the gameplay experience is over...told you its a crash course. Now its time for me to run over this game PR nonsense.

• Removing X-Men because the producer claim (not thought, but claim) that the fans far more adore Guardian of Galaxy and Black Panther than X-Men which is ironic considering X-Men franchise still going strong even with the release of movie, comic reboot, action figures, and other stuff that show it to the producer how wrong he is.
  • They also use this very reason to not even attempt to get license from other title such as Fantastic Four which seems to me like they want to just cut off the loss quick even though they know the game roster would be barren and it shows
• The DLC character they release is VERY insult to the wound especially Spencer who had no alternate skin when in MVC 3 he had his legacy skin which fans would prefer considering the reboot of Bionic Commando is horrible
  • The modding community show it to Capcom that all they need is just swapping the model and call it a day since the game is just rehash of MVC 3, meaning there's not much change need to be made unless we talking about visual...
  • For whatever reason, they release Monster Hunter character as DLC character...yeah sure they are from Capcom franchise but it only serve as pointless and unnecessary addition.
  • A monster hunter who fight wyvern to earn their keep and feed the village...in Super Hero universe who fight against villain who want to conquer the world...what does Capcom think this is? Project X Zone?
  • There's also kick for DMC fans as they release Donte skin from DmC: DmC (yes i don't like them and i don't think i'll ever like them) for Dante. As if reboot Spencer ain't bad enough!
• The PR put themselves under fire because they openly claimed that the player don't care much about background of each fighter which is why they butcher the characterization altogether, claiming (i say again, they CLAIMING) that player only play fighting game just for the sake of beating up each other without single care of their background. Yes, they so open about it that they got themselves shot to the foot by angry player who shove it to them that they do care about it because that's what make fighting game character charming!! Even if those statement are made so we can tell this game aim is headed to a Tournament centric game, the way they treat player mindset is insulting which is bad PR from the get go.

...

...

For the love of anything that holy...

WHERE THE FREAK DID THEY FIND THIS PRODUCER? 

This is screwed beyond believe! I can't believe they even let this man who seems to not know MCU in the first place let alone the game franchise actual appeal to lead this project! I understand if they don't know Capcom franchise but they didn't even know who's the big shot on MCU universe which is a product from their own region! Even i know how big of a franchise X-Men is today and even my big sis is fan of Gambit and read the comic to this day! Where did they find this discount fanboy/girl!? You can't be serious when you claim that no one don't want to play as X-Men character when the market demand otherwise! Sure there's license issue but couldn't they just pick more elaborate reason why they can't get it instead pinning it on player demand that doesn't even legit!? Its like Capcom releasing Street Fighter but removing Ryu and Ken from it because they claim Hadouken is no longer hip for player when they don't even care about it! Or in MCU example, its like removing any fighting reason behind the Civil War between the heroes because they claim audience just love watch those film for the beating up sake without context.

Just this one sluggish project, i would say we won't have any of MVC release to another decade. Though i can't say if this game is as horrible as Jump Force since i didn't play the game yet.

Slug pace gameplay, overly simplified control which is insult to fighting game genre, wonky combo, barren roster, DLC character that don't fit, DLC character that doesn't do much but being pretty, missing key character, missing the point of characterization, confused Producer, confused game aim, jarring visual, unappealing environment, bored VA or just don't fit, insulting DLC price, pointless villain (as they only appear on cutscene but you don't fight them. I'm not joking), and more mishandling to come. 

I really don't get it. What do they gain from chasing success of a film release when they can't even give it some justice? People play MVC just so they can see two universe from different company fight on with set of goal that make them different. They don't even care if they release if after Dr. Strange movie that's for sure. Yet here we are with rushed project that can't tell who they try to please.

MVC, go catch some fresh air...

Elena, Shutting off~

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Just when i thought i couldn't be more happier when the game franchise i followed finally release another installment, boy do i accidently put my standard too high. But standard is a must in order to keep your taste around and wasn't blinded by the fact that a game is actually being a questionable quality. I mean look, i agree that video game is form of art between binary, music, visual, and other artistry that you can mix and even politic element to the pot. But thing is, when price tag was putted on, that's where we sing different tone and this is where my complaints lie with this game...

Yes, this is a non-review because despite my love for the franchise, this installment is total kick to the shin so hard that i won't gonna buy it to play and make review about it. I refuse.

"Being ported from portable console to PC is already enough to put gamer frowning due to underwhelming its visual is on their newest GTX. But when the previous franchise release has better visual and other charm that overwhelm the recent one, namely their Wii release, people will start talking..."

By the start of this game trailer, honestly, i wasn't prepared. Just like Battlefield V release when it was so unexpected that i thought it was an expansion, not a stand alone release. Rune Factory has been around since 2007 (2006 if you get the JP version) and to see the franchise grow bigger is nice to see. Sure its just a seasoned Harvest Moon with piku-piku hammer and cutesy monster but its a good mix. And this one is no difference. However since i don't bought the game (and probably never...) i won't talk about the gameplay and story itself since i don't have clue at all. But what i'm gonna rant about is why the game at this standard have same price as...you wait for it, Elden Ring. Yes, i'm not joking. In Indonesia, Elden ring was sold full price at 600K IDR as of now without discount, and this game, has similar price with 10% discount attached to it. Imagine the full price without those tag around.

Now look, visual can be anything but if i really have to squint for those prices, i would compare the game is just as much as Atelier. Sure Atelier price is sky high but they had more meat of content by the gameplay alone and i won't deny that their screenshot is what bring me to buy Ryza believe it or not and i don't regret it. But RF 5 seriously make me thinking more than twice if its price were justified.

The issue i had with is many player reported that this game is wonky on the Nintendo Switch, a portable console that capable to push the visual to the nearest reality from Zelda BOTW, FE: Three Houses and even Doom Eternal. And it began from inconsistence framerate and the graphic as a whole. I mean, how come they had issue with a portable console that can run both cartoonish and realistic visual at the same time no problem? Its baffling. What kind of engine did they use that make Switch chugged up in the process? That dampen my hype for starter.

And then the PC release coming and the concern people had most of the time is, the dev seems abandoning the Switch version as the issue are still persist for whatever reason. The inconsistency frame especially. If they don't even bother smoothing out their initial release, how am i suppose to trust them to handle the PC release? Look, i had been crapped on for years buying a game that was ported only to be left for dead on second week by the dev and that is enough for me to learn to take note. Elder Scrolls probably the big example of this.

Then come the visual. Keep in mind this is not the first time they release Rune Factory in such format. RF Frontier, Tides of Destiny/Ocean can attest to that and to be honest with you, i would expect them to do the same with RF 5 but like i said, i think i accidently put my standard too high. Just look...

"Its camera were fixed but at least you can get the most out of its surrounding visual"

"The very first time RF can use roam-free camera both in dungeon and town. Added the fact that they pick Santorini Greece for town design, its very captivating"

And this is where they heading now?

Now you know when i said i accidently put my standard too high...

I know some of you might said "Its a port from portable console! That's why-" stop! Stop alright!? That statement is why most player agree that Nintendo Switch player has no standard because they feel like everything is okay because its portable console. And i have to say, "That's piss poor of an excuse!". Look, we already see how much capable is Nintendo Switch holding their weight and despite the fact that i'm more toward Sony console, i still applaud Nintendo for the job well done because i thought they would stick to Mario-like graphic forever for their console. To downplay a game platform actual capability is like see every single dev still try to make game with DirectX9 standard on newest ROG PC. That's an insult.

I won't argue dev idea to keep the game as family friendly looking as possible, i won't. But to see the game is almost just as equal to PS2 games graphic, its shocking. At least give the people consistent framerate! Look at the rock at the background and compare it to your character surrounding. Its like the LOD (level of detail in which the picture were rendered based from your view distance) were set to very short distance, and choose not to do anything about it because the player won't pay attention. Well sure we don't, but for selling point, this is bad. At least give those rocks glowing or blooming effect! And what's with the harvestable? Its like all they did is scaling it up and call it a day! No, its normal for Rune Factory to lift things like that since RF 3, but my issue is, how can those texture feel justify enough for Switch game? And the UI...my words, even on PC release, they didn't change that. I even heard that even though you play with keyboard, you still see the similar icon that told you to push L+- or D-Pad icon. What the heck, did they even trying?

And if that's not issue enough, keep in mind this game has no scaling option so if you play on cramped or widescreen resolution, you might have to squint regardless over the oversized UI that get in the way. At least put it as radial menu like Frontier and Ocean did! Come on! How can a game on 8th gen console got shot by a PAL output game from 2008!?

Too bad i'm not sure if the story and gameplay are enough to cover up the less charming visual and interface since i won't gonna buy it, but keep in mind i've been around this franchise since the first release (though i had to emulate Frontier and Ocean since i don't have Wii or PS3...) so when i see they went nearly close to Unity, its all Final Fantasy and Kingdom Heart for me. Its interesting to see, but not make me curious enough to play.

I mean come on, its Rune Factory, you can tell what the heck the gameplay gonna be with a sprinkle of new gardening system that can be challenging to manage (i admit) but other than that, its the same formula. If by miracle i did end up owning it, i wish, very much so, that the character development was good enough at least near RF 4 quality character development. Like i said many times, a poor gameplay can be covered up by story and character development, and vice versa.

Oh and i heard this is the first installment that allow you to marry same sex gender by default. Except if you buy JP version since such option are not available, don't ask, people have standard alright, we all do. But the thing is, the dialogue wasn't properly adjusted like RF 4 so you can imagine that everyone was thirsting over you when you didn't mean to approach them romantically, male/female alike. For the love of...

Even Stardew Valley had set of dialogue for each interaction/approach! Did they really trying!?

You know what i can get with 600k IDR = 30-40 Dollars that sounds justified for its quality from the cover/trailer?

That was it. Full priced standard edition with same price as RF 5 without discount attached, but more justified from visual alone. I play them all except Elden Ring but that game already show us the goods for its price tag. Maybe i would find RF 5 content were justified for its 30 bucks price but as far as i'm concerned...this is RF5 alright. You farm, you knock monster, you make weapon, you gone Atelier with it, and call it a day.

To add insult is, Monstrum Nox was also ported from Switch and its full price is same as RF 5 which is where i draw the line about the game quality that i might get. Sure good graphic doesn't equal good game sometime; its subjective opinion, but putting those issue under the bus and asked the full price same as close to triple A game when they still have homework to do over there, it will cast some doubt. 

Looks like someone is about to go full Harvest Moon...

Elena, shutting off~

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Patch and update seems like a words that no longer filled with excitement and hype for some games. Something might break, missing, or completely broke the game. Or in some cases, some feature are dismissed, good stuff were taken away without compensation, or just entirely breaking the experience as a whole. You know, back in my gaming years around 2005 and 2008, any kind of update would be the talk of the town. New feature? Absolutely. Continuation of the game story? I personally welcome that one. But the thing is, game company these days keep use that excuse to butcher the feature that should be added on the day one release which is not only bad conduct, but entirely...well, annoying. There's so many toxicity i can say but let's be civil shall we?

Anyway, i want to talk about some game update of the game that pretty much finished by then. But unlike most update, this game receive it from the community officially agreed upon by the publisher. Yes, they ask for permission and publisher grant it, something that not much company do these days. Heck, if they did, they probably wasn't credited.

"An update that break or make it is not the actual concern i had in mind. But rather the developer team itself if they would support the update through the mud or leave it to die when they realize they screw up. Thankfully, they opt to stay" 

The Last Stand Update or TLS for short, is one massive update this game ever had as Valve doesn't seems to move any finger to this game for so long. This update include better AI routing and behavior (though its subjective since they tend to stand in front of you when you axing a zombie), some new weapon, and quality improvement especially on non-campaign mode. The update seems to be welcoming one since it was made by community which mean they know what the game issues had in which we don't need to mention anything wrong with the game. But as every game update, everything must break. Now keep in mind that i would talk about my personal experience i had so i might dismiss the part where the developer bickering with each other and whatnot.

The Game Won't Detect Any Add-On
Suffice to say, modding is the biggest part of this game life support. Not just L4D, Skyrim would be nothing more than oversized empty ground for you to walk on if it wasn't mod friendly. When the update drop, i can't stress myself enough when i found out my mod were left inactive. Its all checked but the game just ignore those and went vanilla. I wouldn't mind letting go the skin mod but the script mod for AI is what make me shake my head. But as it turn out, the developer planned that to only active on PVP session of the game, not campaign. Thankfully, it only take one day for it to be fixed.

The Hate Train
I wouldn't lie, i jump into discussion forum from time to time, and i would say its not place for people with faint of heart or overly sensitive. Seriously, don't jump into discussion especially on game with PVP feature on it. Anyway, the update wonky addition cause all the rage in the community. I saw some people outright call out the community developer (mind you, they don't bother hiding). Some just mod the game back to its previous state (only to fail because Valve game like L4D and CS had something called consistency value which would revert any modification internally back to its default value whenever you restart the game), and other fiasco. Me? I side with no one. Look, this game has been left wonky for too long. You know the fiasco i had to deal with before this fix dropped?

• At No Mercy hospital map, the AI won't go through the broken wall. They would pretty much go around it rather than go through it. Which is pretty much fatal considering that if you're down on the area behind the broken wall, the AI won't save you and just watch you die
• At Death Toll finale map, the AI refuse to go to the backdoor of the boathouse unless something take them there by force (such as jockey or punched by tank). This become issue as they wouldn't be able to replenish their ammo since there's no routing were coded to reach there. Even with script mod, this issues still persist.
• AI would take ridiculous distance when witch are disturbed. This would result in pretty much dire situation if you down because they were so far distance and might even cover behind the wall instead of shooting the witch (it still persist even with script)
• Most dialogue are missing. Scratch that, almost all of them.
• For whatever reason, the AI that usually never take some primary weapon unless they low on ammo on the current primary weapon they had, they take that as their main instead. Francis is the biggest insult because that big guy who usually take shotgun, end up with sniper as Louis is the one who take the shotgun. Its petty but it beat the character impression overall
• Some visual are missing such as muzzle smoke and Bill's cigar

Thanks to the update, most of these issues are fixed. I wonder why the hate until i learn the fact that the same couldn't be said to the PVP

PVP Persist On Vanilla
As you might figure out, old game has easier code to bypass. Which mean any people with idea can just use mod to annoy you with vocalizer that would be used abusively to hurt your ear. While the main feature of that mod is to unlock more dialogue, unfortunately with a few tweak, it can be used to change the radial voice output to whatever you choose. So yeah, the developer decide to ban any mod from getting activated on PVP which in my opinion is normal considering its PVP. But as you can tell, hater wil always gonna hate.

If that's not ridiculous enough, some petty people being toxic over the fact that every survivor laugh are now subtle instead the usual loud one. Well all i can say is, who's fault was that?

The Developer Breakdown
One thing i know when working on the project, is to make sure if the project has NDA in place. NDA, stand for non-disclosure agreement, mean that you agree to keep anything that happen in the project to yourself and just inside the circle. If you ever hush anything to the outside world, you just basically fill your ticket out from the office without possibly earning any mean of compensation. I'm not delve into this much but apparently, one developer were kicked out for being uncooperative. While their argument are well sounded, at the end of the day, its just a wrestle of power. They claim that most of the idea didn't went through the proper channel which is the project leader itself. Most fix and addition were added without the leader agreement and this one developer doesn't seem to like it that someone act like the leader of the project. By the time they voice their issue, which is dismissed in civil manner, they end up blowing it over and spill the bean. As i said before, NDA is not something you want to screw around with. As result, they were booted out completely from project, and earn themselves of status that goes, if you had big mod project, don't hire this guy, they had bucket mouth.

Sure a faux-leader is something of an issue. But what if the said faux-leader already had the blessing to take control of the project when the leader is away? 

The Developer Stay Firm
Against all odd, one thing that i admire is the community developer opt to stay amidst the firestorm. I might sounds like being blinded here but look, update and patch is nothing without the proper support from people behind it. Cussing them out will not helping the game issues. Which is why i applaud the developer effort to stay and fix their own mess until it...become less mess? I don't know, what do you want from me. Keep in mind there's so many game that has loving community but couldn't do much about the game as they are not allowed to do such update. I won't doubt the pessimistic opinion since the community developer might add something malicious, but L4D community is lucky to have people that really care and do their work instead of bailing when they had the chance. Heck, i even familiar with some of their name. Some even hail from my country! 

Anyway, because the developer choose to stay, the fix come up routinely which address what should stay and what shouldn't. Too bad for those vocalizer maniac, the laugh will stay subtle, and the PVP are clear from any touch of mods, even the skin. Like i said, it was their own fault for being abusive. Me personally? Well, i never had time to use laugh vocalizer since i rather chop some zombies, which is more fun. And i'm more toward campaign goers anyway so i would care less about PVP.

At The End of The Day
This update has up and down, but it seems everything has been settled. Not entirely but seeing my experience had no issues at all, even on online campaign, i say the dev doing a good job. Sure there's drama and wonky stuff happen when the update drop, but in the end, they stay to fix it. That's what matter to me. Major update without committed dev team that care is something that i'm afraid of than losing my favorite skin mods. Just look at any online game that was basically in status of "beating dead horse" after the latest update result to break the game. Yeah, L4D and The Sims are the only lucky one that was saved from those tragedy.

I need to remind you again that this is my personal take on the TLS update. I might missing something or get some detail wrong but it was all on purpose because like i said, this is what i experienced. Did you happen to experience TLS on its heyday? Go ahead and share!

Elena, shutting off~

Edited August 3, 2022 by Elena Ichinomiya

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Its been a while has it? I mean, i've planned to talk about rhythm game i used to play for sometimes. And yet here i am talking about the news you already know about. Of course if you know me, i won't be your news anchor but rather roleplaying as someone across the table with gaming magazine on the table and pull your ears about my thought about the gaming industry lack of common sense. Yes, this time, i'm gonna give my piece of thought about the gaming spiral that happen before my eyes...just a few though, i have RP to reply after all!

Stadia/Stay Die
I mention this console before and the setback it had on the day it was released. It was oddly priced, the ads doesn't cover its capability much, the performance shows nothing but spawn skepticism, and then when it was released, it was nearly as messed up as OUYA. I'm not kidding, i thought OUYA and STADIA is the same thing. All because the ads were just one-stop show that no one bother to remember. Its like a teacher who teach something, but didn't offer FAQ session or ignore the question altogether and move forward; you will forget it the moment they leave the classroom. That's what actually happen.

I'll be honest with you, my region doesn't heard about STADIA after the reveal. Not even the tech channel from my region bother to order and try this thing to show it on their video a la REREZ did. I mean, most tech channel would go for it anyway despite the product they gonna show you is obviously bad or malicious just for the content sake at least. That's how obscure STADIA is on my part, a new neighbor who come over your house and say hi, and never show up again. Yes, even XBOX, PS, and Nintendo know better than just knocking our door, telling us they sell something, and call it a day. I know i'm overconfident and sounds fanatic by saying this, but if you confuse the Asian market, your business approach might need to be considered. And turn out it was true. The CEO is basically Uwe Boll of console market; they got the power, the money, the backup, even their very 1st party developer, but they didn't utilize it properly and this is where we are now, dissing his project as much as we dissing Square Enix for any attempt at live service game. I'm not businessman whatsoever but even i can tell that if someone had one job and they had lots of bad record with it, yet you still want to keep them, you might be better off holding them as someone right hand, not the head of project. What are Google thinking? And...did i saw Kojima heading toward exit seconds ago?

Cyberpunk: Become Playable
Yes, that's the joke i can give you because my pessimist self didn't go away even after they fix the game problem. Just like Stadia, i did mention Cyberpunk and include why i didn't hype the game previously. However i also mention that despite its total disaster i also added that if you want to wait for Cyberpunk fixed, go ahead, because the dev decide to go full transparent to player, although with poor roadmap at the time, which is good start unlike Square Enix and their Avenger. And i was right. However, again...

I still hold my pessimistic view because while the comeback might be bitter sweet, it would become the fuel for the developer/publisher who would use this kind of trope into their circle because they think they can turn the table just like that. A trope that we know as "Release first, fix it later" trope. I know CD Projekt didn't mean to do this and i can tell its true. However such awe inspiring swan song like this can be turn into poor excuse for any underwhelming, overpromising, video game release. That's why i only give thumbs up on this come back, without applause and flat expression.

"Y-Yeah! Our game is poor quality but we'll fix it! We promise! Look at No Man Sky! They get better though years! We can be better! And Cyberpunk! They manage to get through tough time! We'll bring you our actual gaming experience on 365th day patch!" -Dev/Publisher

If anything, having your creation become example for unsavory action is pretty much remind me of 90s Mario Bros movie. It become cult classic sure, but the damage it cause was so much that you can't leave the sourness off your mouth even if you manage to move on. The comeback is nice, but keep in mind CD Projekt almost shot its own company down, had some lay off, and most importantly, the core dev team who left the company out of spite. You don't want this kind of success. In fact, you should never consider cannibalizing your own business circle just because you can get away with it while your subject take the burnt because of your misconduct. And this is the main reason why i won't sing any praise on such comeback and pray that any leadership who think this is an okay business model to think it over because when you think you can take the burnt and get away with it, 9 out of 10 people will show you that you can't. 

Quote

"Dev/Publisher, you can't excuse a misconduct after promising years after years of waiting and hope it would go away just because you release a masterpiece before. Everyone would caught on, everyone would complaint, journalist would hound your daily life with the question that would lead you named as the culprit of the product quality, and any profit you gain afterward will never outweigh those ire!" 

Now you know why when a promise was made, no matter how petty, could bear the burden that would break you down and drag your day when you didn't fulfill it. And by the way, i still can't find myself wanting to buy Cyberpunk 2077 at all. If i can buy a teen edgy average overhyped JRPG that is Tales Of Arise no problem (better off with YS Dana, its story is far more fleshed out than this fanfic! *wink* *wink* *WINK*) why i can't buy this one? I don't know, maybe because i still waiting for my Steampunk 1880 or something...

Overwatch 2 Overturn
Ha ha! How the table do the turn! Right, i really don't get it why Blizzard doing this even after their release from the binds of ACTIVISION. You know, by the time i heard the news that the OW1 was shut down in favor for OW2, what did i think of? Warcraft 3 Reforge. Because when the game was released, the classic version was butchered so you have to deal with the game setback and bear with it which obviously earn them flesh to bone backlash from their playerbase. Yet for some unfathomable reason, they going masochist and ask for another. Alright, time to sort this thought of mine...

• The Battle Pass...
  Yeah, let's get the elephant off the bookcase right away. OW2 battle pass model is what most gamer fear when it come to microtransaction back then when it was released to be normalized to the world. I'm not kidding, this is what i thought of microtransaction back in the day before i realize some game isn't always such glutton. Yet here it is. If there's anything that player hate from microtransaction, its when they can't have the same level of fun with other player that pay. I mean sure many gacha game block new character on battle pass, my currently active gacha game also had this, but they would later be released on normal gacha. It doesn't mean its better option as you must shill your wallet anyway (unless you're F2P player like me), it still horrible but at least there's a way to fill your roster to the fullest to compensate it (and not to mention gacha games these days have pity count before giving you the character after certain number of pull). But keep in mind OW2 is PVP centric (for now at least because i heard they going to release PVE) which would deteriorate the competitive value seeing everyone didn't have proper character on their disposal. 
  
  Do i have to say that battle pass took some effort to finished? Call me boomer but isn't video game is something we do for the past-time activity, not another part time job? Yeah its FTP games but do tell me why DOTA 2 could run off with success they had today without any new/old hero locked behind paywall except their skin which also come with Battle Pass that only unlock non-essential feature that you can still walk away from anyway? Most BP on PVP i saw most of the time only put Hero Skin there, not the Hero itself!
  
  "You noob! Because OW2 is FPS! Not Hero Defense! Both are different game!" you say? Well, do tell me then Zealots, why CSGO, a game that run similar genre like OW, can run off without the battle pass issue over the course of almost a decade? A non hero shooter that doesn't have much bell and whistle on their character like in OW, not having special ability like R6 Siege or APEX, yet they can still up and running for decade and never had foreboding news of shutting down due to their BP up to this day. And also a game that transition from paid games to FTP games...
  
  
  "CSGO! GOT THEIR SUCCESS! WITH ONLY BUNCH OF SKINS!! ON THEIR BATTLE PASS!!"
  (Their previous Riptide battle pass last for 5 months to compensate those who don't have much free time to play the game, but still want to make the money worth out of it, while also cater those who decide to buy the battle pass on later date instead on day one, which is good offer for the casual player as they had more than enough time to finish it. To add insult to injury, even DOTA 2 has this similar model include its duration and it works!)
  
  You. Tell. Me. Blizzard. What make this Battle Pass justify its existence? 
   
• The SMS Fiasco...
  ...my region don't fuss this much about so i can't really say how terrible this actually is, sorry!
   
• DDoS On The Other Hand...
  Is beyond me. I'm going to be level with you here, any hyped MMO games, even way back on early 2000, i tell you, it would have entry issues on day one because the company didn't know how much vast the playerbase going to be. They can't just buy whole big server and start with a loss because if the said games turn out to be 2nd coming of Babylon Fall, it would hurt company too much, hence the long queue time as the company estimate the numbers of the player and expand the server count as needed through the course of time. I know its annoying, but trust me, this is not malicious practice. Remember FF14? They had issue like this to the point they stop anyone from entry because the number keep going up and they can't keep up the estimation numbers, hence the temporary blockade in order for them to work with the numbers. At least those end up with bard singing their praise.
  
  OW2 on the other hand, a game made by company who was known for their best selling MMO of all time...DIABLO IMMORTAL! I mean, WORLD OF WARCRAFT, failed to anticipate this issue. I know i sounds like underestimating people works but isn't this issue would be the first thing that come to mind when it come to MMO kind of stuff? This is not a game made by one-time developer team that would be bought by TenCent you know- oh, oh wait, did they? Wait, was it Disney? Its only matter of time you say? Well kick ass! Anyway, as i said before, this is beyond me. Blizzard isn't a game company from yesterday who just enter the MMO market you know. They been there since i was elementary school and maybe beyond that with games like WOW and DIABLO (before they choke on that one not long after Reforged release). As much as i want to point my finger, it could be a new method of DDoS which is why this happening. But still...
  
  This is Blizzard, a dev team that not only known for their acclaimed MMO titles, but also now owned by billionaire. Did someone pull the plug on them or something?
   
• They Cannibalize Their Fanbase...Again!
  By the time OW1 shut down, the old playerbase worry was how much FTP could drag the game seeing the OW2 didn't offer much barrier to stop player from making too much account unlike OW1 which has price tags (35 bucks at the time of this thread writting), it also come to note that by doing this, there would be way too much smurf account and possible illegal account trade going. Which i have to remind you, its illegal. Think of it like i'm making new ED account, turn it into platinum account, and sell it to someone. Now imagine that happen on ranked game like OW in which you were teamed up with, say, one rank higher than you, but turn out they just smurf who can't bear the grind of the game and opt for the easy way out; and they actually sucks. That's where the concern of smurf are. Even in DOTA 2 unranked match, this i say, is a big issue.
  
  Now by what i mean with Cannibalize is, this kind of model would give playerbase no option to turn back to the old game should OW2 doesn't fit with the player gameplay style since OW1 was shut down. By doing this, the player either bear with the new system, or just wave their hands up and give up. This is not good in business viewpoint as they need player for any FTP games model seeing they can leisurely walk in without punching a ticket. 
  
  I can't believe i say this but even EA isn't that thick or in a rush when they release a sequel of their game. Keep in mind at the time of the BF 2042 release, its predecessor release such as BF1, BFV, BF4, even BF 3 are still run online. So by the time the player realize BF 2042 wasn't made for them, they can go back to previous release of BF series. By all mean, EA manage to retain their playerbase number even though they hurting financially as BF games itself are never been FTP in the first place, along with additional content that follow.
  
  OW on the other hand, they had no means to retain their fanbase seeing their only option was shutdown, meaning that OW2 would be filled with less of veteran and more of casual which might only play for fun but wasn't convinced enough to intensify their gameplay with what OW2 has to offer...like their battle pass. All of this business model can be traced back on W3 Reforged where they force the player who don't even want Reforge in the first place, were forced to play the inferior, unfinished, and sub-par quality than its 2003 version which result in deep flesh to bone backlash, and also scummy at best; and i dare to say, they deserve it. Despite its profit made after, i don't think the playerbase count would grow past the threshold as they hoped because as i said...
   

  Quote

  If you messing up on video games and opt to wait for the fire to die down by itself, chances are, 80% of them won't be coming back by the time it was over.

• Did I think OW2 Will Shutdown?
  No. Veteran might be gone, but there's always new blood coming aka those who never play OW1 and know what make OW good in the first place. They would still be up and running, but i can't tell if it would be smooth ride. Hey, if Diablo Immortal still up despite its possible banning over the country since it got profit to fulfill the company ends meet, OW2 possibly has no difference. It will run. But with different spirit of what make it great. A Godzilla 1998 of video game. It has the name and theme, but it doesn't move in the same way we know it.
  
  By all mean, your franchise just turned into another boring cash cow and piggy bank instead a rodeo you might expect. You have my sympathy. 
   

So yeah, that's all the thought i had about the current ongoing game stuff that make me worry, angry, confused, worry and angry again. I'm not game developer but as a person who play game myself, its tiring to hear similar issues over and over again, same news again and again, only under different name. 

Quote

Same good old shit. No matter what you do with it, it would still a shit. That's why Santa told us kids to don't fuck up too much when we become adult. Once you start shit, there's no going back. Not even apology would get you out of the gutter. All those years of effort, wasted in just single month. All because of same good old shit mistake.

Elena Shutting off~

Edited October 9, 2022 by Elena Ichinomiya
Typo

[Elena Ichinomiya]

So you say you got bored playing a game that just make you sit on your barstool, grab a joystick, and massage it until it break. Well then, some you might consider yourself lucky with your VR and Kinect...yeah that. Because at least you got any mean to play some game in literal meaning different way, but more cooler compared to what i had back then. I have to say though, Kinect is not crappy tool to be had, its working piece of tech dare i say. Not perfect, but it do its main job perfectly. I once asked how people modeling their avatar custom motion with and they say Kinect would be more accessible option. Not only because its cheaper, it actually work as intended. Of course i look back and think what fiasco it had with many games but as it turn out...

The game dev for that device is a shitty one who look for a quick bucks on new hardware hype at the time. So yeah, i guess that clear one things up and we all can say, XBOX did nothing wrong! Until it become mandatory plastic doorstop in order play any games...

But hey, i'm not gonna talk about piece of device of old day which i didn't have! Let's talk about something that move your body! Or...just ears really depend on your medium at the time...

"From Konami de beste!"

I think you should've guess by now seeing how old i am. Yes, this game used to be the hype on every arcade, beside Mortal Kombat i think? I mean it, in my region, no matter how shabby the arcade, there's always one type of DDR. The first DDR i saw though is DDR 1998 in 2000. However the first one i have experience with is Supernova 2 on the arcade, and DDRX on PS2. I remember the first time i play it on arcade...i blow chuck. Look, i still a mere elementary school girl and my legs isn't as long as i had today (whatever that mean!). Though i was happy to know when i'm on my high school years, 2011 i think, DDR supernova 2 still available around in which i take the most fun out of it. Sure this game don't reward you with ticket but what the heck, nostalgia always does that to anyone. 

Now you might be wondering, how was it like playing a game that just arrows, on PS2? Well simple. You play it with joystick...

Look, its actually exciting than it might sounds because the song is still good in my opinion (though i later find out Konami and their crew had been on sour water for long time way before Kojima left the studio as of this writing). While playing with joystick doesn't put you up to sweat, you can always use dance mat you probably seen on any google image and even buy one, though you probably end up with carbon copy around this time. In any case, you probably wonder how to press up-down at the same time, i mean, you play with D-Pad right? Just D-Pad? Nope, you can use those X-Sq-Tri-O for alternative to D-Pad, perhaps to mitigate this up-down issue. Which mean when up-down shown up, all you need to do is press down and triangle or vice versa. Which is nice for my 13 years old self at the time. 

Since we talk about the game that also available in arcade, i have to mention that each version has different list of song, due to memory and perhaps disk space limit at the time because i don't think it would be smart to make a rhythm game in 2 disc format. So if you find any DDR arcade, go ahead and give it a shot. Worry not, the developer know you don't want to get too exhaustive on just one song, so they let you play 3 separate round with a song that last one minutes thirty seconds. I underestimate those calculation at first but after i play the game on arcade, i regret for not buying a bottle of water beforehand because my god, does that game really made for workout; except expert level because that's basically Osu! with legs at that point. Don't ask me if i ever try that, i choose life. Just watch it on YouTube and imagine what kind of legs i end up with if i play expert.

While DDR might not been heard about these days, i still heard some arcade still has the cabinet but i personally prefer Supernova 2 and X because the song wasn't just noise and freeze move most of the time. Added the fact that BEMANI, who also responsible for Guitar and Drum Freak series, doesn't seems interested to make an original song for the arcade anymore. Which is a waste because DDR always known for their original arrangement and some remix (not much but its there). And too bad most of the artist album also not released on every music streaming platform although i think some of them are available on iTunes. Or its just simply not available on my region.

"Just pick your poison really, they basically the same game with some upscaled difficulty and different story each"

And when you think playing full beat game with joystick is head scratching, well why not try to make sense of it with stylus? This game prove it to me how it works. My big sister actually play this game before i try it myself. Surprisingly, the game works and doesn't have off beat or ear scratching audio quality either even on DS. I remember the day i caught my big sis playing this, i ask her did she just play JoJo? Well you tell me what those...wait i just realize the picture i take is outright from DS, please bear with it. Anyway, from the cover alone, you can tell this game wasn't meant to be serious and boy, it really shows...

Let me explain, this game is basically where the visual change whenever you perform good or bad. And believe me, the i fail most of the time was because the ridiculous scene happen on the top screen than i am failing my timing. It was on easy mode too! From the way i explain it you might don't get it because this is one of those game where you have to play it in order to feel it. Or at least just watch how crazy the scene goes on youtube if you success, fail, or being average performer. I also remember i play this one song in particular for warming up which is SUM 41 Makes No Difference. The reason is because, its 2nd stage song which is not too crazy overall in every level, the beat was nice, the remix doesn't chop the song too badly, and i just love those catzilla in general. Yeah, a cat and its zilla.

I might also mention the first release of this franchise which is called Osu! Tatake! Ouendan! or just Ouendan for short. However my experience with the first game isn't exactly great because for the size of the first game, it really shows how lack of leniency on accuracy penalty is even on easy mode. I might suggest you to Ouendan 2 directly since the game polish the perfectionist bits out the picture until hard mode is unlocked. Unless you just too eager to see waifu cheer over your misery because you have to end the game, on every difficulty, just to unlock them. The ladies of the Very Hard level. Just search them on any booru sites, you'll see why.

I had fond memory of this game however the game seems tripping itself because they had to use licensed song to make this game which isn't cheap. SUM 41, YMCA, Avril Lavigne, Earth Wind & Fire, those are quite a name. Ouendan also had this similar issues too because they even have to license Larc-en-ciel Ready Steady Go song which is considering how popular demand they are, its very costly. In fact, in some video on YouTube, the developer also said similar thing that because the game is rely on actual song, the game would face high probability issues of being pulled from the market a year later if they fail to extend the license of just one song in order to keep the game on the shelves. Keep in mind NDS even 3DS still doesn't rely much on something called patch back then so its a real issue to keep the game up and running without DMCA on their back.

At least it give me a good time while it last. Loooong~ time later until SEGA decide to go with a bang of their own Diva...

"An arcade-like experience rhythm game that doesn't ask you to get crazy over. And it works"

No, i'm not kidding. I play the game legit on PSP back then, borrowing from my friend. Though i emulate the Extend one since we graduating by then and i never seen them since. Anyway! Don't let the title fool you, its basically 1 2 and 3 despite it said extend on the title, they just decide to stop counting from there on, just like how Sony fail to count their phone series number. Or Half-Life in general. The gist of it is, the gameplay core is a rhythm game, as you expect from Vocaloid anyway. However as the series expand, Sega seems to develop other feature so you just not turn on the game, play, and call it a day. Its mundane but hey, i can't make this review if i avoid the feature altogether right?

Let's start with the 1st. As expected from first release, you should know better than to expect perfection from the get go. The song was alright and the audio was pretty good too despite playing it on PSP. However what i really don't like from this release was whenever you miss a beat, Miku will stop singing. That only amplify your confusion because you wondering if the game broke or something. The MMD visual would still up and running but Miku just stop singing until you hit the next beat. The song list was quite numerous for its time although i have the full experience later playing this on emulator just so i can get the DLC content for it which is...not exactly worth the trouble? Anyway, another thing i notice after this release is the song is just made for Miku. Even when the actual song was sing by other Vocaloid, it doesn't matter, the song is remix version of Miku. So if you curious how Len sounds like in Miku voice or seeing Kaito prance like a cat-girl, this one might be your poison. Overall the gameplay is alright but my words, they sure push the achievement system to eleven because there's no way for you to unlock the costume unless you reach certain goal. And no, DLC won't help you, i checked. And this is 2009 games after all, DLC wasn't a standard as it is today. 

Visual wise, you shouldn't expect too much since its PSP game, but i also praise the effort given because i don't see much jagged texture all over the place seeing some PSP games tend to have that whenever 3D models shows up. Sad thing is, in this 1st release only, not every song had MMD video clip in it as some of the song is just a slideshows of pictures. The video clip on the gameplay also nice to see depending on which costume you give Miku for. Yeah, you can put Miku in bikini...on a desert video clip if you so desire. She's your Diva, your barbie girl, you can dress her up, you can play with her, you can...oh right, talk about play with her...

Well, since this is the first release, you shouldn't expect much. All you can do is being a creep by watching Miku doing her thing in her room with clothing of your choices...oh...NEW GAME TIME!

Okay! The next one is the 2nd Mix. This is play similarly like the first one although with more challenge which is double tap arrow in which you must press the arrow shown, but also the gamepad button at the same time. For example, if down arrows shows up, you have to press the down button on your d-pad, and X button at the same time right at the precise beat shown on the screen. It might seems redundant, but you'll get used to it quick. I mean, if a slow poke like me can achieve that less than hour, i don't think its much of a difficulty spike.

Some of the song are new but the song from the 1st release are also making a comeback. It is also noted that the song were also expanded for other vocaloid on the mix which mean the song are not Miku exclusive anymore. But i have to admit though, it still doesn't give the other justice but then again, the game focus was Miku so i can't blame them for putting her on the light spot than others. At least the song are good enough but...does Kaito always sounds like 90s anime boy or the mixer had some issue using his voice bank? In any case, this is the same good old Project Diva with more feature attached to it. The video edit mode are also expanded in case you're into that. But keep in mind you're playing on a platform with clear limitation all over it so don't go crazy. 

This 2nd release also come with a polished core feature such as Miku will now keep singing even if you miss a beat. The game also come with full MMD video clip for every song unlike what they did on the 1st release. The duo feature are also good addition although not every song had that on. Yes, you can make some spicy video clip with Kaito and Len romancing each other if you want to, just bear in mind the voice bank won't change so it might amplify your laugh over the top. As for the room feature? It exist still even to the Extend Mix and so on. You can customize the theme even which is good because you now can put any vocaloid on he beach or classroom and make them wear- NEW GAME TIME!

Now for the Extend, it doesn't make much impact other than, in my opinion, the audio is far more better than its predecessor. I didn't mean to hypocrite my own statement by the way, the audio is decent enough in the first place, its just that the Extend seems adjusted to those who play with earphone and it shows.

Despite its release, most of the song is almost completely new if not a few comeback from 1st and 2nd mix in it. Some are also stuck as DLC but~ i manage to get that through emulation. Does it worth it? Depends, all i did is just do what the instruction said. The assist feature are also included here in case you want more challenge to double the score, or a little help which can be costly but also hamper your total gameplay score. This feature has been around on 2nd mix (if i'm not mistaken?), and become an option for the future relase include Project Diva F on PS3. I play this version a lot because the new song wasn't too bad compared to 2nd mix. Not saying the 2nd mix were bad its just that i feel like Sega try to find their footing with the 2nd release. I keep jumping from 2nd to Extend mix from time to time because some of my favorite song wasn't available on Extend mix version and vice versa. I had good time with the game, even try my hand on expert, and got destroyed...but i have fun!

Now you might be wondering, does this game exist on other platform? Yes, but rather obscure or JP exclusive. There's even arcade version of it but not in my region so i can't comment on that. Though i can say that the MMD render is pretty good. The good thing is, MegaMix+ on steam is said to have feature to change the render if you don't like the default render. No, not filter, render. Which mean you can play the game with the old MMD render if you so desire. The model quality doesn't change though so don't get the wrong idea. And this also marked the end where everyone can now play Project Diva since the game used to be Sony only release. Its not exclusive deal, Sega just like to stick it on them i guess. 

And of course, as old as this one goes, i still find myself wondering, why i sometime bother with...

"My god, you're greasy..."

And that's my experience on Rhythm genre so far. I also need to mention that i also play Muse Dash, Cytus, Deemo, and other Osu! Copy but...i'll be honest with you, Muse Dash was too simplified, Cytus is mobile only which is turn off, Deemo is good but i don't find the gameplay appealing for long run, as for Osu!...i choose life, seriously, i rather sweat off playing beat saber because i want to enjoy the music while tapping the beat, not having seizure in the middle of it. Or you can simplify it as, those game isn't made for me so i left it there for good. And don't make me start with Guitar Hero because i'm not into a KKKKKHHHHHHKKKKK RAAAAAWWRRRRR which sometime overlap with the song, or worse, the guitar riff which, you know, the MAIN SHOWS OF IT!

Elena, shutting off~

[Elena Ichinomiya]

You know, i used to say gaming these days could be as expensive as health needs like therapy. But i just notice that compared to what i experience back then, the reason why it feel depressing to play a video game today, as weird as it sounds, its because we know what was happening behind the screen. Back then, we buy game, that's it. Today, we know the company fumbling, scandal, and even more idiocy behind the screen causing the death of the series which i always deem ridiculous. I know for a part that making a video game isn't easy let alone cheap. But the most mind bogling is they knew they make mistake, instead of fixing it, they go with it just for fiscal year deadline sake that help no one let alone themselves by the time public judge their product. You see, sometime the ignorance is bliss and some news really hit our nerve that we swore that we'll find way to pirate their game just for the hell of it. Like i do. Sometimes. Guess living in 3rd grade country has its perk of having everything uncencored. Anyway, i wanna talk about the gaming news i heard as of late and give you my thought about it. If you're not interested, i suggest you stop reading now because it would bore you. If you decide to read anyway, please forgive my text editor because i write this on different PC and somehow the auto-correct suggestions was turned off.

Bayonetta 3 VA Hilarity
I'm not trying to downplay the issue, getting underpaid sucks and i can relate. However the thing that i can't get over is how the actor put their words to show their disdain toward the developer. At the first time i see this, i thought the dev did make the slip. But when i saw how much the actor get paid, and then looking up on internet how much VA was paid per hour, include some video on YouTube for reference...i quickly drop this off. Seriously, i did just that. By the time money was flaunted, i can tell someone probably making things up, either its developer or the actor, just to stoke the fire, it always work like that. But the thing that make this ridiculous even more is how the actor want people to boycott the game...just because the actor didn't get what they want from developer. No, the actor didn't bring anyone else, they only spoke for theselves so i don't feel there's more to it than the actor asking for more lunch money. Selfish and chips ladies and gentlemen? Might as well make it salty.

Look, the amount the actor got is already a standard payment and the actor do what they were asked for. Its all fair. But the amount the actor ask for is basically as if she did the most work for everything in production, not just voice acting. Sure some game use their VA to also motion capture a scene, but if that were the case, her disgruntlement was valid and i would take her side. But when i found out she ask more than one check when all she did is just being VA of digital character...i'm speechless. Was it because the gas price? I don't know, you tell me.

The thing is, this boycott might work if there's more party involved, and the amount paid were indeed abysmal. The scale of scandal for people to boycott has to be large and clear, like ACTIVISION sexual harrassment scandal and unhealthy business model which already self explanatory because it was very likely involve more than one person, and grander scale as their lies were exposed and revealed that they are in the wrong. Compare that to one person who boycott a product, over one issues that wasn't an issue to begin with, and hope there's army in line. Nah, that's not how riot started. I know for a fact that if you overly overestimate your value in your expertise, you better be careful because you're one step closer from doing a stupid things that would cost you your career, and stain on your CV for the future project. Just to give you an idea, VA works salary isn't near high enough as used Lamborghini price to begin with so yeah, the lesson here? If the payment standard met the requirement for the job on the paper, don't jinx it.

Fantastic Idiot : Doomed
Zenimax, Bethesda, Id Software, and Screw Loose Producer. Look, i never hurl a slur unless its a joke, or if you really screwed too much that i can't help but think you're beyond help. Like these 4 headless chicken for example. A man doing hard work, let his personal schedule sacrificed just to get the job done, enduring days of oven meals because he wasn't paid until the game release, hold his tongue despite the possible downfall of his career despite it wasn't his fault, only to keep receive the kick on the shin instead of credit he deserve. That man right there could literally "marry" your company if you treat them right you know. And they blow it. I gonna save the detail since you probably know it anyway from news outlet or YouTube. But the thing that really get on my nerve is...

Was it that hard to at least pay the man hardwork? I mean sure its too late at this point but back then, the man still give the company and his producer a benefit of a doubt. People always do the unthinkable thing when they are on pressure and would also cause some strain in relationship between boss and their subject. But at least that's when they inside the office exclusively. But this man keep receiving kick even on his sleep and that's breaking camel back for anyone. He work on something that they keep rejecting which result in more work hour, unpaid, possibly in health hazard due to saving his bucks to buy healthy food (he claim he eat oven food just to preserve), and not only that, the company was not only bullying, but outright betraying, broke their promise, putting his name under the bus and also credited him in wrong section, and just deliver a threat that there will be hell to pay if the company reputation crumble because of him speaking out the truth.

What they seems to not know, is when a person was pushed on edge, they would MOST likely fight back as they got nothing to lose anymore since the company just want to oust them anyway, and would do anything to break out from the shackle. And the man did just that, he rather go to hell, but he also dragging the company along who deserve it. 

And the company respond? Its another "He said, she said, bullshit" plastered all over it. To be honest with you, i don't think Bethesda even hold any investigation. At all. I know for a fact that ID Software was owned by Bethesda but why they butt in when its ID Software problem? Sure they are ID Software parent company but is this the best they can do to solve the fiasco? By pointing fingers right off the bat?

I know i'm talking to thin air here, but all i can say is i can't buy a reason of good reputation when they can't even hold ONE candle without letting it fall and burn the whole foundation when all they had to do, is holding it. All of this matter at least can be alleviated by paying the man what he deserve, and creditted him for his work despite the broken promise afterward. Sure its still horrible but at least its less problem to address. But at this point, any mean of payment would be seen as bribe. That aside, this is rather comical in certain angle that literally three big company + wimpy producer against 1 man speaking out his experience working on total toxic environment, by himself, with his own words, without helping hand from other worker let alone lawyer. Its like a bully kid who got punched back by a kid they bullied, run back crying to their big brother who also a bully, tell their brother someone just hurt him, and they ganged to beat the bullied kid.

Maybe there's a twist behind this scene? Maybe the composer are really playing with the fire here? I don't know. What i do i want to know, if this is just one man problem against one problematic man, why the hell the whole company marched on and openly ganging on this man instead of being the middleman? Instead they shift the blame right away not long after this gone viral, as if there's no investigation being launched, claiming it was one sided statement, and hope this will died down just from that post alone. I don't see that as one sided. Its only one sided if there's only one party who speak up. THAT is definition of one-sided. Keep in mind the one that fire the shot first was that confused producer, not the composer. For years, people were blindsided and now they have audacity to call the composer statement is one sided when he speak up? What the composer intended with his post, is to clear up the misunderstanding without any boycott rally and let people decide which side of story they want to believe, that's all. I bet if the company decide to address this issue with reasonable move instead of accusing its one sided story (my ass), the man would probably leave in peace and public would only scrutinize the company instead of giving them long day taking out their dick out of their ass. Its like if i had issue against Neptune (i said IF alright!), then for some unfathomable reason, every single admin just outright pin the blame on me just because they want to keep Neptune image clean without asking my side of story or at least ask what happen.

*sigh*

Bethesda, Zenimax, Id Software...wimpy man...don't skip bill next time when its due. A hangry man patience can only hold so much; at least give some clarity why he can't get his paycheck and being creditted instead of being dodgy. Money and lawyer will not completely take you out from the game until its proven. Netizen will hound you on social media, gamer will put stinker over any project with your name on it (remember Randy Pitchford?), other game company probably blacklist your name from entering any of their branch at this very moment, journalist would give you headache, and any moral boost and trust you got after the successful launch, would never feel good. Ever.

Speaking of lawyer...do you have any idea how many of them are going to hell? Just quoting Ghost Rider here. But seeing all this happening, i would say...

Or so...

Elena, shutting down~

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Hey! how was your gaming...

*sigh*

You know what? Let's just cut to the chase. Its not another game personal review sadly, just news reaction. Though i do already had one in process about my experience in fighting game genre, which involve BAMCO ironically because they had the good stuff. Anyway, here...

"Is it really worth it to boycott one thing just because you're afraid making someone day? Give me a break..."

So, this game finally saw the release date. We don't have to wait for another years like Duke Nukem forever and Beyond Good And Evil 2 which seems now breaking the record for being the most indecisive development cycle ever. Hogwarts Legacy promise the player with the experience of playing as one of the student in Hogwarts as the wizard, not only that, you also had your own adventure there with your OC. Yes, an OC. Time to re-read those Immortal story guys, because your wet dream about that might become true in this game.

Now before we dip into hot water, i have to remind you that this game is published by Warner Bros. One of the publisher of horrible microtransaction in full priced game such as Shadow of War, MK11, and even simple game like Back 4 Blood somehow got screwed up. There's other good record about them but that's the game they didn't bother to meddle with like EA toward Apex and Titanfall. Since this game are not only has IP name and Warner Bros rights in them, i can only imagine how this goes. Now without further ado, let's dive to the hot water. Because i think i'll get the burn after this too.

The news goes off saying this game was outright banned on some country. Why? One key. Gender selection. Now you might know what i'm about to say here but when you release a game, you have to know it would be impossible to release it on every single corner of a country. Heck even Castlevania on Steam wasn't available in my country, even without gender matter involved. 

Then we bump into the riot who had bitterness toward the author. Yes, i know. But since we talk about video game, let's focus on this one. Warner Bros and Portkey developer team promise the player that this game has no involvement of the author. What they include is just the world building itself based on the lore of the book. The Author had no hands in what character you encounter, how things work, or what monstrosity you faced. The only thing Author had a hand with is lending the IP. Does the author get profit from this? Yes of course, its her IP after all. Flop, success, boycotted or not, some penny will be delivered to her...and then the bad crowd come in.

Quote

If you buy the game, you are transphobe!

No, that's not the author words, that's the words of the people on the internet. I am not joking, heck i'm not even interested with their squabble against the author to begin with. But their ideal of buying things equal this, its mind boggling. Say, have you guys plays the Sims 4? One that you can make a "futa" character on it? Does that mean you support trans by buying that game? Depends, i personally play them for fun and the trans option are just a flair to add the fun value. It doesn't matter what you bought or what you boycott, when there's tied IP on the game, the owner of IP will get profit no matter how small it is. So what's my point? Well if you don't care about this squabble, go ahead and buy it because this game has nothing to do with trans agenda to begin with; its the internet who start it. If you had problem with it, just leave the product and call it a day. Boycotting it will not gonna stop whatever that has been made into the game. 

Look, we had this issue back then and you know what? Gamer always had their own view when buying and playing games. They play game because they like the game. They don't buy a game because there's something that doesn't click with them. Remember when Apex release first trans character? Gamer don't care who that new guy is, they just want to play and use those character because they were mechanically useful. When Sims had trans option and even impotency? Gamer don't care, they just want to play The Sims for its wackiness; heck they even allow gay/lesbian on their first game and people don't give much damn because its fun! When BFV sold poorly because it has agenda on it? Gamer. Don't. Care. Because they put money on something they want to play, and hold back when they see there's something they don't like. Even Andromeda which is written off as final nail, had a lots of player not because for the agenda behind it but rather to see how bad the game is on 1.0 version, i don't think they even care. That's how gamer works, if they see something click with them, they bought it even with the scandal behind it and say its a game that suit their taste despite the controversy. I am also guilty for this kind of action, don't get me wrong. Did you guys remember Postal 2? There's many things to hate but gamer play it for the sake of being fun. They don't care if it has controversial on it! And don't get me started with Manhunt.

...is it really worth the effort? Reddit? Blogger? Gaming journalist? You can't change people heart by being pushover in case you don't get it.

If anything, should Hogwarts Legacy released anyway, flop or success alike, i would say gamer would play it because it has wizard genre on it and might as well the only one genre that's available on the next gen gaming today. They don't care if its on Harry Potter universe, heck, they would still buy it if its from other universe like Witch Academia for all i care, i guarantee.

So at the end of the day, if you're gamer or just an enthusiast thinking about buying the game simply for the good time, go ahead, let the internet talk, don't let it kill your joy. If you don't find any joy from the game, don't jump on the train and leave it be. As blunt as this might sounds, i would dare to say that...

Quote

Adding more sex into character selection will not gonna raise your sale, it only add appeal for option value.

This also apply to race selection (by race, i mean like alien, furry, etc). What gamer care about gaming product is, how they play and what's the meat inside the product is worth the money. Not what this game are for, or for what sake. With or without agenda, people have preference on their gaming and to see that some people try to discourage them like this, its pathetic and would give more reason for gamer about why people with agenda will always be a bane for gaming. Beside, its not like HP Author are part of cult organization anyway. Maybe if she did tied herself to a hate organization, i too would consider to shun it. But as far as i care...she just wacky lady with a pen and papyrus paper, end of story.

World are not made for you alone guys, don't force everyone appeal to align with your taste and belief because once you realize the bitter reality that the damage you just did to others far outweigh your suffering, you just become a person that you yourself would hate and there's no one to blame but you.

Elena, shutting off~

Edited December 25, 2022 by Elena Ichinomiya

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Hello everyone! How was your holiday? Good? It better be, if not, i want to hear it especially if it involve drunk aunt and uncle beating each other up and then later say they thought they play beat saber after they sober because my words, world need one of those story these days! Anyway, speaking of beating each other up, not that kind of beating mind you, it come into my mind that i also get my hand on fighting game. So why i don't talk about it? Well, simple. Fighting game is pretty much short experience to talk about and no matter what series you play, all you do is pretty much the same. Of course there's fun value on it, i remember had a blast with Tekken 5 DR back in the day, which i'm gonna talk about it here. Sure there's some change of move set at some point but most of the time, things stuck as the way it is up to this day. I could talk about every single character move set and how it felt but i don't want to sit here all day talking about...

  or 

This is after all one of the genre that you must play to feel it. One thing for sure though, i'm not into this genre as much BUT i do enjoy it when my mood strike. I even bough SCVI full season pass. Too bad BAMCO think that game is a side project to the point they didn't fix the random slow FPS aka Unreal plague who always strike any PC gamers. Seriously, who on earth think making realistic graphic WITHOUT compiling it for the sake of seamless play won't be complained about. Way to alienate your own fanbase you **** bag! At least give the bois optimization of 30 FPS! Even your ELDEN RING had this fiasco on PC!

But enough about that. Did your family hate each other after the feast on today holiday? Then this is your chance to make them sit down, give them a joystick and play...Tekken 2 on NES.

"Tekken 2...on...NES"

When i said i'm not avid gamer and more like budget gamer, i really mean that. Not because i love keeping money on my piggy bank, because why bother having a good stuff when you already had good stuff at home- okay you know what? This is crappy bootleg, no two ways about it. Tekken 2 on NES is a bootleg. And crazy stupid too. By the time actual Tekken 2 released, we already had PSone! I do get it if it was bootleg for at least SNES, but NES? Of course NAMCOT (I swear i'm not typo it) ain't the one who responsible for this, heck, you don't even find any developer or publisher name on title screen. As if the developer realize "Oh damn, we make crap, anyone want to put their name on it? No? Yeah fuck this" and that's it. But thanks to the internet, i find out there is an actual developer name and publisher. But before we jump in about that developer, let's talk about this game play feels like...

"Well, it's NES alright, even some character had to chop their legs to fit the cartridge size"

It's clunky, it's heavy, the sprites are an abomination sight to look at. And obviously, you can do things Tekken usually capable of on this Ninendont version which is juggling. No, you can't do that nope, i tried. There is special move set (surprise there) but i don't think it do much anything other than knock your enemy far off the screen. And if it was blocked, you only got thrown a little bit without damage taken. How easy this game is? Well if you watch REREZ on one of their bad console series, you can win just as easy by spamming button. But in my experience, all you had to do is tackle the enemy down, push them to the end of the screen, and keep tackle them. Use the turbo button if you want to because when you do just that, you'll destroy everyone no matter how high the level of the enemy is. The only time you lose is when you decide to play other game.

Let's talk about the madman behind this for a bit...
This game are developed by Hummer Team, a game developer who bootleg almost 16 bit game you know and (might) love, and put it into NES 8-bit version. Its stupid, but i admit that was some ambition. Because this is not the case of Chinese bootleg that would die next day. They made a tons of "converted" 16 bit game like, MK2, Final Fight 3, KOF 96, SF 2, SF 4, and most beloved game for all age to enjoy, Harry's Legend. A bootleg of Harry Potter that doesn't bootleg from anything, but from other developer game title, Titenic, but we don't talk about that do we?

As for the publisher, its called JY company. A game publisher who always hide their own logo as if they're ashamed of their business model, laugh behind the screen for your purchasing decision or fear of getting sued. But then again, with a game company logo that look like this...

"I kind of understand their sentiment...what even is that!?"

So~ we had a great start i say, what did your parent thinking for buying you that bootleg? I can't say, But since that game came out in PSone era, the "offical" cartridge of that game usually bundled in "3 in 1" games because we already way past cardtridge era by then. Even Nintendo gave up the idea with their GameCube. What's that? You curious what's in that 3 in 1 thing? Well...have you tried your luck with Street Fighter on NES?

"Street...fighter...2 on...NES"

I can't say much but one thing we can agree on, its ambitious and crap. This game developed by the same team that made Tekken 2 on NES. Of course you can feel a slight asset flip here and there but thing is, this game look like developed first before the Tekken 2 on NES. I wish i can do more analysis on that regard but this game don't even have audacity to shows when this game are released! Anyway, this game is a few fighter game on NES, the bootleg at least, that has special move included. Of course CAPCOM isn't involved in this mess, their SF 2 is already hit the store hard enough, and if they really want to kick it out, they already did with GameBoy version, why they tarnish it with NES?

Speaking of which, i do mean it when the game involve some special move. Although not much to write home about, i do remember Blanka roll attack, Guile sonic boom, and of course the infamous hadouken. Like i said, Hummer Team might be a questionable group but boy, they sure are ambitious bunch to bring what the original series can do. How the game play feel like? Janky up the whole!

"Is that Zangief? Well, what do you think?"

Well if you saw an asset flip game, don't expect it as new game. I even found out this game was the base of bootleg of Mario Fighter...a Mario fighting game before Smash. Unfortunately i can't talk about that because i don't play that bootleg. Sure i would do that before this review but fresh experience can't beat the old wine we had right? First time always memorable stuff~ like Mortal Kombat on NES!

"This game bootlegged so bad, i don't even know which MK they try to copy but i assume this is the 4th installment, a hacked version of MK 3 bootleg"

A hack of bootleg game? What were they thinking? Anyway, this is the version i played because i remember the character select screen. Thing is, i'm not into MK series so i can't really say what's going on and what's should do and don't. However what i can say is, the AI is so cheap as they can spam you non stop with their ability. Liu Kang will projectile you to death, Sub Zero and Skorpion also do the same, and whatever move you try, it won't execute. Look, you guys remember how NES controller shape like? There, just to give you general idea how unplayable this bootleg is. Thing i, i remember playing it once in a while because i think of myself playing actual MK...shame on me.

On the bright side though, Nintendo should consider this bootleg as the safe version than what they suggested. Changing blood to white, pfft, is MK character is a gym rat bunch? What were they thinking.

My words, can we play a decent fighting game? Is it too much to ask? Come on, i live on PSone era! Give me the real Tekken 2! But what do i got? The better one of the bunch that start it all...

"For me, this is where my fighting game taste started to tick. Oh and perhaps my first love with Namco"

Look i know the watermark is pretty much unnerving but i assure you this is the real one, not the bootleg. Tekken 3 is pretty much what people talk about in my days even on PS2 era after Tekken 4 was released. Despite the fact that most character on Tekken 2 were out of commission and replaced by their descendant, such as Jin which is a son of Jun Kazama (which take a good years until she appear again later on Tekken 8!), Forest Law, which is son of Marshal Law, and who can forget the memorable Tiger Jackson? Anyway, i main Yoshimitsu up to this day thanks to this. Thankfully he isn't a guest character so i can be assured every time of new release, Yoshimitsu won't be easily dismissed. Though i had to bear the wacky design every release like...did you see what they did to him on 7? Hope 8 won't turn him into Cthulhu. 

Surprisingly, Tekken 3 manage to kick the bane of joystick for fighting game pretty much. Keep in mind that PSone stick don't have analog just yet so pulling the usual down-forward input can be tricky on the joypad. Good thing is, Namco notice that the fighting game at the time was still tied close to arcade cabinet in which they decide to release the fighting stick aka arcade stick for the player comfort. But personally, i can handle the game with the joystick just fine. I'm not gonna praise them if the game had such holdback after all. Oh and also, they have guest character named Gon. I don't know about it. And i don't care. I enjoy this game, heck, i play literally every single character to see each ending which somehow become a luxury on next gen fighting game. Cheap beer...can afford the pricy engine and shares, but can't afford a good ending scene worth after?

As every classic, the game offer more option of gameplay from simple arcade mode to team battle mode. I wish i can talk about Tag Tournament but i don't play that game so i can't say much. But since they release the Tag Tournament 2, i assume people did like it. But i'm not sure we gonna get the Tag Tournament 3 because i sure as heck we gonna point out..."why don't you put that on the main release!?". In my opinion? To put the game size as humble as it is because my words Tag Tournament 2 roster could compete MvC 2 if they really try! I don't think we're ready for downloading 200GB for a fighting game now do we?

Oh what am i doing, i got side tracked, next one please. What is that? Tekken 4? Oh no, i don't jump to PS2 right away on its release i'm afraid. Instead of Tekken 4, i end up with this thanks to my friend who keep ranting about it!

"Had they not bomb themselves with Bomberman Act Zero, we could have more of this!"

Well get a load of this, this game are made by the Eighting, one company who later work for Fate/Unlimited Code. And Hudson soft, the developer of Bomberman. Which they publish themselves along with Activision, and Virgin Interactive. Suffice to say, this game has been around since PSone era but its rather obscure. But i remember my friend mention fighting as lion in which i think he actually talking about Killer Instinct or Rampage. Turn out, this is what he talking about. 

BR3 Is perhaps my first fighting game i played on PS2 before Tekken 5. Yes, i skip Tekken 4 because i don't think the dev want to wait too long after the questionable move of the character roster. Anyway! BR3 gameplay is pretty much like average fighting game, but with transformation involved. And no, you don't just transform into furry character completely, you can be a battletoad, cheetah, insect, and even bats! Sorry guys, no fish allowed here.

One would assume this is a furry centric game in which you fight as folks with Zoanthropy kink. But nope, you have to fight in human form first. The control of this game can be difficult but it doesn't take long for me to get used to it. You can rely on basic combo for starter so i can say this fighting game is quite easy to master depend on the type of character you used. Now for the real sell of this game is, after you beat your enemy, you'll fill a power gauge. What's that gauge is for? Super hadouken? No, its your transformation charge. Once its filled, you can transform into animal and raze your enemy mercilessly. I remember accidently pulling out an ultimate attack as Xion and boy, this game might not have fatality, but its satisfying to say the least. However i can see the real issue of balance here because once the character transform, not only it has somewhat amped up damage, it can take little damage too if the opponent is still on human form. You can't take that to EVO right? But still, despite all of that, the game manage to release a sequel before Hudson goes Sesame Street and bought by other company...

After this point, i remember never touch any fighting game for years, simply because i'm into RPG at the time and action game like God Of War and Dante Inferno (yes, that Dante Inferno). It was when i enter the college is where i craving for beating people again. Now i don't want to talk about the same thing twice so i gonna wrap this one in simple package. What game did i get my hands on again after years of absent? 

"Is this why i see a fanfic about those two at the background?"

Tekken DR is basically a Tekken 5 on the go. No character goes to chopping block, some game feature are there except the Devil Within mode, and...that's about it! It's a game with new character roster and additional content and some returning character. I think around this time, Namco want to fill their fanbase something to chew on while they making the Tekken 6 seeing they had no main release on PS3 era at the time, which is good idea considering that all they had to do is converting the original game and goes to focus on development. Gamer happy, developer content themselves.

I play this on PSP...emulator. But i do use the joystick for playing this because why not. Anyway, the gameplay wise, its even better than 3. I hear that Tekken 4 was met with mixed review at the start because the control was stiff and Namco don't seems to manage to utilize the 3D environment which is why like i said before, Namco quickly release the Tekken 5 in pretty much short time development. If Tekken 4 was that good, i think we gonna get the Tekken 4 DR instead but eh, i don't think it would happen. Anyway, every character in this game has pretty decent hitbox despite being the PSP version. Sometimes though, the AI can be randomly punishing, i even continued many time on stage 2 if i were so unlucky. But of course we gonna talk all day about Jinpachi cheap AI move which can destroy you with 2 hits. I'm not joking, but compare that to Azazel on 6, at least you can hit him. And we can't talk about Tekken without mentioning the Bowling alley do we? You know, the bowling mini game...that somehow you have to PAY to play it on Tekken 7. Seriously? You want me to fall in love with that company as i do with SEGA? After all this? Nah, here's my money, choke on it.

Pfft...i'm bored beating people with my barehand. Sure i just chuck my claws on some people on Bloody Roar but can i beat someone with...oh i don't know, A ZWEIHANDER!?

"Fight like a hero, sting like a difficulty spike"

I'll be honest with you, my first SC game i played is SC 3 but i wasn't into it since i'm at my edgy RPG days at the time so i can't talk much about it. So instead i play this one along with Tekken 5 DR! On emulator too of course, with joystick usage. This game is, just like Tekken 5, is actually a SCIV but portable. Some key feature might missing from the original but overall, all feature of the game still hold the gameplay value. The thing is, unlike Tekken 5 DR which made to fill the empty gap for player who wait for Tekken 6, Namco made this game to introduce new player to SC with SCIV system considering that at the time, fans of old begin to move on with their life, hence the game company had to look for new blood. You can't shove new guy with EVO level AI beating you up on stage 2 right? Hence the nickmane SCIV "Newcomer Edition".

I have to admit i kind of regret not playing the 3rd installment after playing this. The gameplay is smooth, and it offer a tutorial to those who not used to 3 button combat. Like DOA (oh we gonna talk about it later alright), SC only use Square, Triangle, and Circle input where X are for guarding and parry with additional input needed (or X, Y, and B if you play with XBOX controller). The roster might be lackluster seeing there's two identical playstyle with different character look but i don't feel much hindrance from it. Not to mention, it has Kratos! As if Spawn wasn't enough on SC 3, they put Zeus little mistake in the game! Better than Darth Vader on SCV i think because my god...that game...my god...

The story mode on this game might throw you off but like i said, this game wasn't meant for the mainstream fanbase as this was a budget offer for those who want to play SC on the go, or playing it inside their own safe bubble with various challenge aka single player focus. You might not get it from reading this but if you play any fighting game and then play this, you can tell this game playing it safe with their approach just to make sure the impression for the new player stick. Since i bought the 6th release, i say its effective!

Too bad we can't beat people with steel pipe! Super Smash Bros should put any Silent Hill protagonist in their roster for that. Anyway, i already beat people until they stupid and ugly. Why don't we play some game where we punch some people, and still looking pretty and stupid?

*Popeye laugh*

Told you we gonna talk about this. DOA 5 was pretty much like Battlefield 4 in my perspective. Some fans would go back and play this release, especially after they realize they shilling for almost 2k bucks for a sugar tits clothes season pass, and hair change color ticket on DOA 6. Yeah, real kicker there. Anyway, DOA 5 is literally the first DOA game i played. I do heard their name a few times back in PS2 era but i didn't pay much of it since i already had dose of Bloody Roar 3 at the time. Would you believe this game was supposed to be a spin-off of Ninja Gaiden? Yes, this game was supposed to be a spin-off, a side story, something that you don't have to play to connect the dots on the main installment. But here we are. Just like Persona and their dancing and fighting spin-off...huh, DOA don't have dance game yet, i wonder...

Anyway! Gameplay wise, i agree with every fanbase about this game. Each character has their own fighting style and even if they come from the same origin, they were given a unique move set to distinguish them from other fighter, which is good. The button input is accurate although compared to Tekken, DOA seems more forgiving if you input the button a bit late when doing a combo. However what i like from this game is how they want you to not just juggle and kick, but also parry your opponent attack. This is where the X (or A for Xbox controller) button come in where it function as parry. Trust me, you'll have your ass kicked by parry than being juggled. It was cheap at first but when you learn how to pull it off, its far easier than Tekken or maybe other fighting game which usually had its own input for different character. 

Let's get down to it shall we? This is DOA, a fighting game that somehow has more immersion than it needed for a fighting game. I talk about the juggle physic...on character clothing and also dirt and sweat. Hey, i'm a woman, i see boobs everyday whenever i take a bath, don't expect me to make a big deal out of it! Back on topic, DOA 5 did appeal to me when i notice that every single battle, your character shows the sign of fight on their victory screen. Either dirt on the clothes, or sweat, some even had their clothes kind of being teared of, kind of. And i don't know how KOEI TECMO did it, but those busters make every clothes sway realistically in perfect manner and it never stuck or clipping even once! However it doesn't seems to apply to every cloth because some DLC clothes doesn't seems affected which is why i tend to stick it to normal clothes than bikini because hey, its always satisfying seeing those hard work scar on the victory screen, i ain't gonna lie about that. I heard on DOA 6, character that has their hair tied to different style would be loose after hard hit taken but...i don't think i see that happen. Maybe it was on demo only? I don't know...

Did i miss something? I think not. Well that's all folks! The fighting game that i ever played so far. I might missed the big name like Virtua Fighter but i can't talk about something that i didn't played...besides RF 5 and BF 2042, because my words, they really put the sign "Don't play me! I'm shite!" on the cover and trailer so there's that. But of course, i play one fighting game that i really glad i play just a bit, and giving finger before the developer did it. What was that?

The game publisher wet dream...

"I'm a fighter!"

"And developer/publisher cum dump"

The dev left this game after ALL their microtransaction were shot down by fanbase who then run back to DOA 5. I am dead serious. And for that reason, i also jump back to DOA 5. At least DOA 5 is finished game with clear microtransaction and goodwill. This one? An abuse to one creativity and player faith.

This game release 4 season pass in less than one half a year (15 months based from the source i got), who are they trying to compete? Even DOTA 2 season pass ain't so much in a hurry! What is this dev problem? Did their marketing team consist of loan shark or something? What about the gameplay? You beat people pp like every fighting game That's it, i don't want to give this one a benefit of a review. Pay me exactly $2,068 bucks, and maybe i consider it. Yes, that's the total of the DLC and all season pass, inflation not included. 

Compare that to The Sims 3 price on Steam include all the DLC, it cost you $470 bucks and even The Sims 4 had $870 in total price as of now. Sure it was still pricy, but at least that game has more content on each DLC! This one, not only the prices gone for miles an hour with their price, all you mostly get is a recolor cosmetic. Oh, SCVI do that too! How much do they cost? Less than $100 bucks by the way. And it also a fighting game. Crazy? Nah, madness of reality. Who KOEI TECMO think they're player base is, investor? No wonder they sink beneath Melty Blood and Guilty Gear on EVO...

Elena, shutting off~

Edited May 18, 2023 by Elena Ichinomiya

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Let's talk something we know for once in a while shall we?

Yeah it's like hearing people talking about Star Wars or Star Trek isn't it? Honestly though, i always leave this topic to a real veteran knowing they had better deep knowledge about the game. RPG might be easy topic to talk to, but when it come to system, it can be tricky and you always forgot to mention something. Just from that alone, i think you can tell how much of casual gamer i am. But what are we talking about here, let's focus back on the topic.

The Experience
P3 is actually my 2nd Persona game i played. The 1st one i actually played is P4. My friend convince me that if anything to go by, playing P3 isn't much of a burden compared to jumping back to P1 or P2 (and its expansion) since the gameplay wasn't too far off (considering P1 is dungeon crawler, i think i get it why). I actually put my expectation just as low because we talking about the predecessor release after all, some feature or anything else might be missing. Well, it do missing some component like a direct command tactic unless we talking about P3P. And honestly i consider the game is pretty much easy since you can put skill card on your favorite Persona at a time. You want to make Jack Frost can cast Zio? Or add Marin Karin skill? Go ahead, there's skill card for that. It might seems like a breeze but i assure you, it won't save you the trouble when it come to boss. 

To be fair, by the time i play this game, i happen to own a magazine that explain the history of Persona (megaten included) and walkthrough for P3 and P4. Unfortunately its missing the fusion table so i end up with guessing game whenever it come to a fusion. Wi-fi isn't a thing in my region back in 2009 so looking up on internet is not an option. But its fun! Sometime mistake happen but it won't hinder your progress much. Until you met an enemy that can one-hit you unless you have persona that null those ability. Told you those skill card can be both handy and still has a chance to not being helpful. I remember having difficulty at one part in dungeon where i face with enemy that can one-hit you with Hama or Mudo. Yeah, what a bastard and a half. That is until i get a fusion of persona that null at least one of the element and the rest would be a breeze. 

What i really don't like about this game is pretty much shared with P4 where if you ever pass out/dead, its game over. I mean, what sense does that make? The rest of the party still jiggle around and has revive skill but you're not allowed to revive yourself? Come on! Yes, this factor is perhaps what drive people off the RPG games because they might think that in every RPG games, you're not allowed to die no matter how much party is on board. But i think P5 doesn't include that? I don't play the game yet. Anyway, now you know why there's progression barrier.

The Soundtrack
It's rare to hear someone who talk about game, also praise its soundtrack. I mean sure its common but back in the day, no one would bother with that for some reason even if they already on their 3rd playthrough. Anyway, while i did share an experience playing P4, i still find myself enjoying the P3 soundtrack. Some veteran claim that this is an outcry from the P2 since they never use this type of music genre before. But i enjoy it. Sure there's some good, some bad, some middling soundtrack that i only listen to when i'm in dungeon. P4 isn't that bad but i find myself enjoy the P3 soundtrack better. Considering i have 5 favorite song from P3 compared to P4 where i only like just one, its already speak for itself.

The Theme
Now we talking! You would say this is P5 before P5 but back then, this topic are pretty much considered taboo, even among Japanese society. In fact, if this game were released in today generation, i would bet the theme are still relatable about how much apathetic a person can be toward each other and themselves. Add that with social media shaming, and you're good to go! 

I won't lie to you, the game theme felt a bit edgy at a time when i replay the game. But it doesn't kill the mood entirely although i can't really say about the post final boss scene where it kind of implode in cheesy factor. But then again, this is a 2000s game where such scene are pretty much common even on anime. But now that i think about it, P3 might be one of the RPG game where you receive not-exactly-happy ending like most RPG game has to offer (i heard P2 also rather bittersweet). Not that this is the only game mind you, but back in 2000s, most RPG game is always...

Quote

"A kingdom is ruined. The King is stupid- i mean corrupt. There's evil witch and her favorite pet lizard want to control the world because they got bored and horny. Its up to this one useless man armed with short sword he loaned from his father and shield from the bottom of the barrel. With his 5 companion, they start their journey. By buying lots of herbs and lots of MP potion and revive dust because salt always bring the death back to life. And goes off to kill the dragon and the King (somehow) guilt free from all his corruption, congratulate the hero and reward him with his incest Queen- i mean, princess!"

Yeah you know the drill. It's always kingdom got screwed, hero save the day, happy happy pappy cappy RPG type of game story. But P3 doesn't go that way. Not only they set off on urban settings, they also kick the happy ever after ending trope and opt to pick the melancholy setup for their ending. One that might leave you hanging, but considering what the protagonist been through, i personally think it suitable outcome. 

The Character
Okay, i'm gonna cut it short. We could spend all day talking or commenting everyone social link so i'll leave it out entirely and only focus on the main characters instead. Just know that i max out all of them on new game+ since the game is THAT good even on the original release. When it come to characterization, i still prefer P3 all the way through when compared to P4. In P3, every character progression take time and as the story goes, everyone interaction toward each other change as they accept each other flaw including themselves. In P4, the character itself isn't that bad but what i don't really like is how they literally change and open up after their shadows are defeated. Its as if the change were almost instant and their change was pretty much like popping balloon. Its not entirely bad but i like it better when the character taking one step at a time to progress to be the better (or worse) person at the final moment. You never know what hit you in P3, but in P4, the people in your party is pretty much open textbook of everything once you solve their case. 

Now let's break it down...

• The Protagonist : You can name him whatever you want, dress him whatever you want provided you had the right item. Many people speculate about his actual canon trait but seeing its all up to you, Its subjective.
   
• Yukari : I don't know about you but her character progression is pretty much diamond in the rough. Her reason to join the party might be petty but when its revealed the reason why the shadows and tartarus exist was partly her father fault, she isn't outright swallow that up and take her time to cope which is the starting point of the change of character. Its not instant change, but its there.
   
• Junpei : Whoever write the storyline for this character, i really want to give them personal thumbs up. Now you might say this fellow here is a comic relief, which he is. But what i really like is of all character progression is the pace of how much he evolve from a childish man in a high school uniform, to a man who can take care of himself without putting hazard on others. We probably know where the peak of his character progression is and overall, this is perhaps a good example that just because a character role is a comic relief, it doesn't mean they can't have their moment. And it deliver.
   
• Mitsuru : I know we really love and cuss this character in battle and we probably know why. Anyway, my impression of her is pretty much kick me out the window. I was expecting her to be strict to the bone to the end but as the character progression occur, similar to Junpei, its possible to break one main role and impression and still give them a reason to be loved. She is the founder of the investigation team, mean business, hold a noble code, but as the story progress? You can tell she's holding herself back from guilt tripping herself for years and on the side note, she still has her girly side that she hide out of fear of giving a bad impression; heck its even more obvious on her social link event. A find example of character whose mask once be broken can still be an admirable presence to admire regardless.
   
• Akihiko : On my first playthrough, i honestly don't pay him much mind. But i found out that his character progression is about what strength is worth for you if you only keep it for yourself. In my opinion, his character progression might a bit late and feel forced when it came down to it. I won't blame you if you also didn't pay much mind to his story progression because even my friend who also play megaten do admit they can't say much about Akihiko compared to everyone else in Persona games, but also can't explain why he couldn't.
   
• Fuuka : If anything, i would say Fuuka might be the only character that has no progression because she don't have that in the first place. Not that it was all bad, because her character improvement is pretty much of a moral lesson to others than to herself like the others did. This prove to me that you can make a character without much progression but you can give the impression by empowering the other factor instead to remember them by. 
   
• Ken : He is the example of quick character progression. He didn't show much of his setback up until the climatic point which is where we can see his character improvisation. When he decide to move on from his bitter past and revenge, that's where everything ends because there's nothing worth noting afterward. At least they do him justice.
   
• Koromaru : I...don't know? Anyway, he teach you to never waver against danger to anything that you hold dear. Especially if its your sacred place! Deus Vult, woof! woof!
   
• Shinjiro : I admit, i miss maxing out his social link on P3P because i end up choosing to eat ramen at one point...oops? Anyway, he's pretty much open book for you to tell he's guilt tripping himself but we can see how he try to move on at the time he join the party. Sure it didn't end up well for him as we probably know, but i could say Shinji is perhaps the only character that already way ahead of redemption arc by the time of he join the party. My big sis going after him on her playthrough of P3P because, duh!
   
• Aigis : I...think i gonna say this is the least of my favorite character progression. The thing about her is her character progression is to redeem her mistake and do whatever she can to fix the damage even if it cost her. I might be able to pinpoint her story value if not for the fact that her arcana isn't an odd one. At least you can tell what Magician and Priestess is about to a character but Aigis just too vague for me to tell. Still like her when she's being her robotic self though.

And i remind you again, they took their sweet time to move on from their fear or doubts. Compare that to P4 where everything cut short after the dungeon is absolved, i would pick P3 character progression any days. Well maybe P5 would put that out but we'll see once i play the game. "But Elena! P4 character did progress on their social link!" you might said. But does it affect the entire circle of party? Even in P3, the social link immersion doesn't affect anything and they still probably act like their usual self even after they confess to you. That's why i said i leave out the social link entirely because its just a side feature that doesn't affect anything to the character progression inside and outside the circle. 

In P3, there's always new conflict toward each other party member and even a distrust among the member, making it more believable as they work their relationship for the better as the time pass which also pick your interest for each of the character. I might be too harsh on this but in P4, i do feel like each character progression lost all its meaning once their shadows are dealt with, making the character progression feel pretty much meaningless afterward as they all just get along no problem whatsoever. Giving me no reason to look forward about how each character deal with each other flaw because its nonexistent. And end up leaving me with nothing but an 8 people, standing on an empty room; there's nothing left for you to see to get impressed, because you already seen it all.

With All That Said
P3 on PS2 might be underwhelming experience if you perhaps start your journey on P5 which is a farcry from its predecessor. However if you ever find yourself interested on replaying the predecessor, i suggest to just buy the P3P later on PC release which should be this year if there's no delay. Not only it has more option to offer such as female character, it also has more system covered where the PS2 version lack. You won't miss out anything although you might find it trippy to play with cursor rather than 3rd person camera perspective. You'll see why. How much playable the P3 PS2 is? Seeing i manage to end the game no problem at least on normal level on the first playthrough, i say its playable and begginer friendly. But i suggest you to not being cocky when selecting difficulty on new game because since this PS2 version we talking about, some enemy are pretty much love going hardcore on you if you jump the gun. 

Now you might point out, "What about P3 FES gameplay!?". Well i do play it. It was meh, its grindy, its unnecessary and i don't even know if it was canon or not. I'm not joking, the dev admit the P3P female character is canon, but P3 FES seems to be on backlog and never talked about again. Heck, FES doesn't even made it to the portable version of all thing! If ATLUS would bother with P1, what's the reason it is to hold back re-release of FES!? Though given the fact that the game is pure dungeon crawling and battle centric and story driven without much mundane stuff to put your mind off the main story line for a second, i kind of understand this sentiment. Heck, even some veteran won't talk about it unless mentioned. Its not bad game, but its a far outcry from the main release and i said this again, grindy up the hole! Don't worry, it doesn't affect much of the storyline with or without it anyway so if anything, you can safely jump to play P3P because even there, FES wasn't mentioned whatsoever. 

Before i end this, i apologize if i keep pushing P4 down the gutter time and time again, but it is what i felt about that game. It might be great experience at first but everyone has their happy place and my happy place for Persona series is P3. Not because i'm being edgy here, but i just like how everything went and how it all came to an end...albeit cheesy in some way but compare that to P4, oh great here i am gutting it again...

Elena, shutting off~

Edited January 16, 2023 by Elena Ichinomiya
Typo and additional notes

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Alright, P3P is now availale for PC. But i ain't gonna put double review on that. However there's seems to be a concern among reviewer (who suspiciously only had 0.2 play hour by the time of their review) had some legit point going on for you to hold back the money to buy this. No, i'm not gonna stop you to buy P3P PC, its your money, i won't take responsibility for your loss, who do you think i am, financial advisor?

First concern is perhaps the graphic. We all know full well this game would be upscaled and that's it. And it do. But the thing is, P3P is far more delicate than P4 Golden which release on VITA to upscale around with. This become very apparent that some people would find the environment are rather blurry due to the fact that the environment are the basically a pre-rendered background and then slapped with character sprites. To those who play at least on smaller resolution, this wouldn't be an issue as it retain the PSP resolution together. But on larger one, you might not only deal with blurry texture and sometimes Vsync issue, it become a hassle to play. If you ask why this one don't work while P4 Golden PC port do, its because at least P4 Golden environment are not pre-rendered asset but an actual game asset being upscaled so it doesn't have the "stretched" background.

The second issue is perhaps is where i also jump in the frown wagon. Many review stated that the sound quality was still a PSP quality sounds which is not good considering that PC player are mostly play with speaker or headphone. And hearing PSP quality music is perhaps not very pleasant experience of them all. ATLUS, you didn't lose the music asset like Konami do with Silent Hill do you? Come on! Even DOOM original music isn't this bad!

But so far no complaint about the game being unstable or crashing left and right so i would assume if you can toss aside the graphic and flaky quality sounds, you will still get the full experience of the game regardless.

What's that? Why they port this instead of FES? Read my previous post. My point? Why would you port a game that has lackluster gameplay core to begin with? And who care about FES storyline anyway? Who? Yeah no kidding that game structure would be difficult to emulate and might require more than just emulation to port. At least 20 bucks for an ported PSP game are better than 70 bucks for a PS3 remaster game, right, SONY!?

Once again, don't misquote me, i don't say anything about don't buy the game. Its a working piece of game, just with a bit of setback so you can consider it as an option. If i do tell you to not buy the game, i might as well join this wagon of...

Well, i think you know about the boycott. Now i just gonna get my point here. The reason i don't buy the game, is because purely out of interest or the game genre wasn't suit to my liking. If i do buy a game, its because i want to play it and i can afford it, nothing more. You think how long since Skyrim been released and i still not buy it despite the fun value it has? Or Fallout 4? Or Sekiro? Yeah, that's my gaming code. Don't buy unless you had urge to play it to the end. 

Now this is where things get too crazy. Those boycott seems way too desperate for their own good to discourage people from buying this game. Let me remind you guys, no matter what delux edition you buy, JK Rowling only earn her licensing money, nothing more, and that's not a big one considering her role in development are just giving her IP. And no, i don't buy it for the rumor that goes "If you buy the game, you'll fund the hate campaign!". Well guess what desperado, i want you to show me what hate campaign JK Rowling involve herself to. If she really did, you bet my ecchicredits Warner Bros would shot her contract down and get off with other original IP in the first place. A shot in the dark like this will make people doubt your intention. But it get even better!

Imagine yourself being in the middle of it and then out of blue being called a xenophobe simply because you don't follow their cause. This very factor is literally the one that spark the people interest of Hogwarts Legacy. Heck, i don't even know there's a boycott before this issue came up! Now i might get out of topic here but please, if you really want an army, does it really make sense to call them names like chump? I surely not, heck i don't even plan to buy a game in the first place but thanks to their moronic move, now i don't want to buy the game, but also eager to dissing them for such move. Gamer play what they gonna play. Do you think the AO rating on Manhunt would stop people or even a parent from buying the game for their kids? Heck, we even had a grown adult buying a KIDS ONLY rated game to this days! What gonna stop gamer from playing Hogwarts Legacy with all i just previously mentioned? Well, the game price perhaps. Though i personally give this franchise an eye because it came from Warner Bros. Sure they publish a good Batman game but they also make a slip with Gotham Knight, Lord of the Ring, and even simple piece zombie shooter game Back 4 Blood. All you had to do, is making a good zombie shooter WB!

If there's anything that stop gamer dead on their track from buying a game, its the game quality itself. Do you think how many game i had at the moment that has mixed review and blatant agenda plastered over it simply because the gameplay is addictive? It doesn't stop me, so why should i stop buying game because some random person who don't even know me cuss me out for buying a game that they don't even know what game it was? Now you see why the boycott fail miserably and people laugh at irony. Seriously, what hate campaign guys? What is it? Keep mouthing such misinformation about person like that can lead into defamation lawsuit you know, just saying.

Elena, shutting off~

[Elena Ichinomiya]

You know sometimes i wondering if i can talk about games that don't impress me on trailer alone and even at the time of release and not buying it. I always said that i'm not avid gamer, i'm just a casual enthusiast gamer you could find on the neighborhood who don't hype a new game and planning to buy it on day one release. Its okay to have your own view on things and as long as you don't push people around with it, people would appreciate your view even if it against their belief. Its okay in my opinion if you play the game just because you like video games, not without challenge or hype behind it. You would be surprised some people love playing Muse Dash over OSU, or prefer playing 100% Orange Juice over DOTA 2. So with all that said, let's talk about that new product over there...

"Saint Row Reboot : Motherfucking dragon edition..."

Forspoken was published by none other than Japan Ubisoft aka Square Enix. Just like Back 4 Blood, i don't hype the game simply because of the publisher name attached to it and sure enough i once again dodge the bullet. I don't know who the developer team is but something tell me SE would gladly sold them to invest more on NFT after the game sales report come around. Normally i would bash the developer but you know what? Maybe SE is the one at fault for overhyping a game that i'm pretty sure one hundred percent they don't even play to test it, heck they might as well not seeing the final product in the first place!

They don't like your PC
I heard many reason people shun or cancel their pre-order a game simply because they got cold feet or they realize the dev don't give single care to their project. But this is pretty much a hot take for people to run off. The last time this happen is when Crysis game released which require a demanding spec of PC to run, but at least it has neat gameplay feature at the time after the trouble you get through. Forspoken literally give the middle finger to PC gamer and not just budget gamer like i do but also mid-tier PC owner by shunning them. And unlike Crysis, Forspoken content is repetitive without anything new to look up to because other game before them already done it and they do it better than Forspoken (Avenger, anyone?). Look, i struggle to run Witcher 3 on high settings or else the game will either crash or straight up shut down my PC due to overheat. Do i really want to bother upgrading my PC to play this lunacy? I think not. Even days before the release, the game manage to alienate their possible fanbase in a stunning way. Its mind boggling how SE even not told them to get the whole thing optimized because they narrowed down the player base by doing this. What kind of engine did they use to make the game spec requirement so bloated is anyone guess. But as far as i know when the game require too much from the user, something is clearly not right. Really, it make Call of Duty blush with all those spec listed.

To quote certain game developer on Valve...

Quote

"The reason people don't buy video games is because the lack of accessibility given to them"

And Forspoken simply fail to notice this. Heck, i would bet even the most advanced PC master race would find better game to burn their video card on than this game and boy, i wish i was kidding...

The game visual is very "concerning"
No, the game don't look like you when seeing the mirror. At all. I see the gameplay run on channel TheRadBrad and even the VFX particle fail to impress. I don't know if that person play on PS5 or PC but i don't have to worry about that because on Steam review, the game did look underwhelming despite what they asked from us. Some said the graphic is pretty much like TLoU2 at best and TLoU PS3 at worst. I really don't get it, what's their purpose for asking so much spec only to give the middling games you can possibly find everywhere. Did they got cold feet? I'm sorry but compare this to NIER, another game published by SE, that game might still be excused for asking too much from PC gamer because at least it has the visual feast to the eyes. Even Cyberpunk didn't ask too much; heck the minimum requirement are still on my range, a budget gamer who own an 2017 PC!

And the VFX on gameplay? Barren. Have you ever shot fireball on any game? Skyrim, Torchlight, or any game with fireball spell really. I won't make fuss of this had it not for the previous mention about asking too much spec for PC even on minimum requirement. I only see a few key moment where i question if all this trouble worth to burn your cash in and i only shake my head as result. How can they underwhelm the VFX after asking that much PC requirement? I also notice that the cloud in the sky are wonky as it overlap one each other when i watch the Moist Review, but perhaps there's a in-game lore reason for that so i can't really say if its a glitch or intentional.

The character is a mess of a meme
I pity the actor who had their face put on this character. I really don't get it, is it a trend nowadays? Making a character who is foul mouthed every time they open their mouth, jerk to the end, and no consequence given for their action? "But Elena! They already show that on trailer!" you might said. Well when the trailer did released and become hot topic, i do give it benefit of the doubt because there a lot of game company who mess up their promotion by stating something that they shouldn't. And Forspoken also part of that. I thought those narration are only on trailer and the character actual personality would be a farcry from that public stunt. But boy, i even can't tell where to begin when i watch TheRadBrad gameplay rundown. 

The character is not exactly what you gonna comfortable with to play as. This is just another case of Abby from TLoU2 where you play as character you outright hate and worse, no single character development for you to seek through. She curse whenever she find the chance to curse and there's no single scene where she don't. I really don't get it, even i aware that you can't always throw curse and mockery out of your character ass in order to look cool because it make them look asinine instead. Whatever the character said every single time is what i always said when i learn the English curse words for the first time. Its so bad that i hope when i mute the voice volume, it would apply to the cutscene too. Its a grueling thing to watch. 

And Moist Review even point out that at the end, the protagonist still act like a dumpster fire of a lady in acid trip. This isn't the only game where you were forced to play as character you don't comfortable with. FFXIII is one of it (Though FFXIII-2 did get it right). When you make a character like this and plan to put them as protagonist, the risk of unpopularity is very much obvious which mean the stake on the redemption arc must be grand. I have played a few game that the protagonist is an natural evil jerk but the reason why i don't cuss at them its because they show their reason why they act such way at the redemption arc. Its not required to make evil jerk character always turn good at the redemption arc, YS Monstrum did show me just that although not as protagonist but rather your companion. On that game, the said jerk did remain as jerk but become a lovable jerk because he find a reason to point out their annoyance to specific people rather than blindly. A jerk who learn their lesson fare better in the fandom than a total asinine.

This lady protagonist however, are not. You can watch the Moist Review how bad it can be but if you want the brief version, here it is.

She literally dissing a girl who lost her father and basically tell her to get the fucking move on because the protagonist is an orphan and felt she had through the worse living on the streets. Basically showing off her badass life on the street as orphan would excuse you for dissing a girl who just lost their parent, no sympathy deserved for such sad folks. Sorry to say it only show her as a certified asshole instead a motivational badass; calling them apathetic would be a compliment at this point. The worse part is, that was supposed to be the redemption arc! You kidding me!? All those bucks and PC upgrade just to play this game just so we all can see a noisy lady demeaning everyone on sight, flexing her misery, and berated someone for mourning? What is this, Bully? Heck even Bully has standard who to pick on in that game! Who write the script and why they think this good protagonist material! Was that you, Square Enix!?

Quote

"When you play as character you don't like and can't even relate or care about their background in the slightest, its tiring to sit through. Guarantee" 

-Me

Overall
This game is underwhelming trip to go through even to just sit through and watch. I rather wait for more days until Lies of P released than thinking to buy this game that kick everyone expectation on the groin, and not in good way. "But Elena! You should play the game before saying all this BS!" you might said. Well tell me, if you see a game trailer and the gameplay and you don't like it one bit, is it smart to buy it regardless of your best interest not to? Nah, the trailer might be not anything to go by and i would ignore it most of the time, but keep in mind this game ask you too much just to play it which is pretty much a tall order for me to get through with my PC. Some people even mock the VFX are very inferior and less realistic compared to Genshin Impact, a UNITY game, on their game review page on Steam. I wish i was joking and told you they're joking. But after seeing TheRadBrad run, i half agree. At least the texture do look realistic although not as pristine as the trailer.

This game look so unappealing that even watching it as movie on channel like Gamer Little Playground, it felt like an endurance test. Maybe the gameplay is actually exciting, i don't know. Now I don't speak for every casual gamer around here but in my opinion as casual gamer myself, this game fail to convince me that i'll have a good time as the game progress so why i bother buying and play this game when i have Yakuza 0 that obviously fare better (in cursing department) and packed with more fun factor both on storyline and character wise? It make me question who are these game made for? Teens? Is that what teenage these days after for a character to play as? Curse like nothing matter every seconds like a 3rd grader who learn curse words, be a selfish jerk even to those who save you, and kick someone on the nut because they mourn their parent death? I think the writer submit the wrong paper and instead sending them their fanfic when they were edgy 15 years old. You can't tell me that wasn't the case! What else the reason gonna be!?

Overall - Part 2
"You misogynist just don't like female as protagonist!" they said. Joke on you, tell me about 2B from Nier, Estelle from Legend of Heroes, Kasumi from Dead or Alive, Bayonetta from Bayonetta series, Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn, Yggdra from Yggdra Union. And many more. Those game franchise put female on the spotlight and not many people dissing them. Why? Because their character are fleshed out from why they exist, what cause their attitude phase, a key moment where they had to break their habit in order to achieve something (like saving their loved one for example), and then the satisfying redemption arc where they find their resolve and learn the consequence of their action without killing their natural trait. This is apply to any type of protagonist; kind at heart, cold, jerk, badass, anything really. When the chemistry fail or outright doesn't even exist, people would only see the big flatline they can find and nothing more. Gender has nothing to do with all this; but bad writing perspective and questionable QA is.

At least we can take comfort the dev don't run on acid trip themselves and call the reviewer a terrorist. My words, can human be even more self centered moron than we already are?

Elena, shutting off~

PS: I am not interested with this game to begin with, don't misquote me and say i don't like the game because of people review. I just refer to them because they're the source for this writing.

[Elena Ichinomiya]

City building! Yeah we gonna talk about that again. My first love...okay, not exactly, but you know i'm sucker for city building games or anything similar to it. And i know its not related, but i consider rollercoaster tycoon as building simulation games, although we might call it business building since we run the theme park  and put price on everything instead ramping them up like taxes. But! I'm not gonna talk about the big catch, no. I already talk about SimCity many times, and also RollerCoaster Tycoon and their little history of mishap between Atari and Frontier Dev. So what am i gonna talk about then? Well, just like certain game reviewer, let's get back to the past!

"...i think i have to elaborate a lot about this...my words, this game so underrated none of us even archive their splash title screen!?"

Anyway, this is Townsmen, the first Townsmen. As you can see there, the game run in ideal resolution of 176 x 176, which is common screen resolution for a lots of phone way back in 2000s. Since we talk 2000s, some of you could tell that this game run on the good old boot engine called Java. Yes, that Java. The one programming app that caught many college student curiosity and wonder, but also misery to remember. Anyway, Java is pretty much used platform like Android in those years. There's no single time you miss those Java logo when you start an app or if you use Nokia, a Symbian OS logo. Not every series mind you. 

Anyway, this is the first Townsmen and the very first installment that i was lucky enough to play it. Since there's not much to talk about, graphically speaking and audio wise (some version don't even have sounds!), we just skip to the gameplay.

Townsmen Java is perhaps pretty much complicated because not only there's no tutorial to tell you what's up, you were expected to know what to build first and manage the source as you see fit. There is some sort of tutorial scene on the main menu, but to say it was immersive tutorial about what do and don't is pretty much underwhelming. In fact, this is something that most Java game player (me!) kind of miss on game these days. You were thrown into unknown and explore what possibility you can make from the get go. Townsmen Java is no different because if you screwed what to build first, you're it, new game time. I literally reach the end game where i manage to upgrade every building to the max on the days 1636 which pretty give you an idea that this is not the game that you can rush. You will always bump into resource requirement, disaster may strike, or your own poor decision is what cause the game into complete halt. 

Now let me flex on a bit for my personal experience here...

• Build woodcutter first. Don't ask, its the only building you can make at the start.
• Build fishing hut. The upkeep of food are depend on how many crew working there.
• For the love of anything that holy, do not hire too much crews early unless you absolutely need them because once hired, they can't be fired and it would be sinking hole to food upkeep. If you're unsure, save first; provided you already turn off the autosave. My advice? Just max out the total crew on resource gatherer (the building on center, or fountain thingy), leave the rest remain on 1 crew unless you need more resource income. Add more crew to fishing hut when its hard to keep up with the upkeep.
• Huh? How to check upkeep? Press 0 on your keypad...or touch it in case you play it on J2ME emulator. Don't let the total sources hit below the upkeep! The game is pretty much throw a fuss about it and it will demolish the building right away without bother waiting for the next day!
• Build stone cutter next. I know the tutorial say you should build sawmill but ignore that, they need stone to build it. Yes you can buy the stones but since you just started, it will strain your wallet.
• Build sawmill, but keep in mind they use woods to produce planks and woods is basic upkeep for every starter building. So if you run out of woods, put the crew back to the house and put them to work again if you need them.
• Build a mines. Its petty resource at first but don't you dare sell its resource! It will be VERY useful for your financial support later.
• Build blacksmith. Whatever raw material stored from the mines, it will be turned into tools which can be sold at quiet decent price. Rake them up until you feel you had enough bucks for the next upgrade.
• At this point, always be on lookout on your resources and it is possible to see your resource gatherer struggling to take every resource on each building. Either decrease your crew on every building (except fisherman hut) to ease the load, or soldier on but you have to keep buying source needed for upkeep.
• Build a farm, its a great source of food in the game. That's it.
• Upgrade your resource gatherer (the fountain!) and max out the crew.
• Upgrade your crew house (one with bed icon). Its a gamble but you will need a lot of crew later on.
• Repeat the upgrade cycle from the #1 point. Woodcutter > Fisherman hut > stone cutter > sawmill > mines > blacksmith > farm > fountain > crew house > back to woodcutter and so on until max upgrade.

See? Even simple Java game that look so meh had complicated process to achieve the max upgrade. I'm not kidding when i said i wish there's speed up button (oh there will be one alright...), but at the end of the day, seeing all those waiting game bear to fruition especially after max out every building...it felt good. Real good~

Do i recommend this? Why yes. Though you need J2ME emulator to run the game or buy any phone with this installed because my words, i don't think my SE K300i opera mini can open those shiny websites anymore! Not to mention that phone run on 3G! Or perhaps you can insert the JAR file to a memory card, provided your phone can support it like, say, fatty salmon Nokia 6600?

Alright, we're off to the good start i say. Now let's go the sequel! Let's go back far away to the past, the game also goes back to the past!

 

"Less complicated, less immersive, but welcome setup"

Townsmen 2 is perhaps the developer team way to test the water. Not only the game now run on Kingdom setup, there's some feature that would be added on later installment which and more QoL value to the game. Just like Townsmen Java, Townsmen 2 also run on Java although back then it demand specific resolution to play or else it would be cut through and you can't see things. This sequel offer more freedom of placement and you don't have to worry about crew numbers anymore as you can just build anything and as long as the upkeep are met, you're doing good. But unlike Townsmen Java, when the upkeep doesn't met, the building just shut down, it won't destroyed by itself or downgrade, its just shut down until you fill the upkeep quota again. 

This is also the first Townsmen that introduce "terraforming" system. I put it on quotes because you don't put much change on terrain, but what you can do is putting up sources like body of waters to fish, woods to cut, change swamp ground into corn fields, or just change it to plain grass, the choice is yours. The only way you can change the terrain is through randomizer at the start of the game which will ask you how big the map gonna be, how much mountain around, how much forest, how much body of waters. I find not much difficulty playing this game and no tricks needed really. As long as you manage to build market early, you're up for success, that's it.

There is also story feature but i admit i don't finish it but i can say if you up for challenge, that would be your best option. Hey, i did say this is the water testing field for developer so don't expect much. Because what they did next is pretty much head scratcher...

 

"Pirates without ship..."

Townsmen 3 in my opinion is perhaps a daring approach from dev to tap the mobile market even further because this is the first townsmen and perhaps the last one too, that implement multiplayer mini game. No, you don't build city together, that would push the envelope too far for the game of this caliber; not to mention it still run on JAVA in 3G era at that! What mini game you asked? Cards game...cards...game. I don't know if its poker or what but when i play this game on 2008-2009, the server is pretty much inactive so i think the dev realize this is mistake and screw it? Who knows.

But what i do know is they make the game ain't worth getting unless you're into the story. Because Townsmen 3 is the only townsmen that doesn't have sandbox mode. I told you this one would be head scratcher. Now that the game server long decomposed, you only left with the game with less replay value and that's what boot out the game early before we move on to a better half of this series. Even the graphic are grubby than Townsmen 2 now that i think about it...

 

"Arise brothers! We got heretic to milk out of!"

Townsmen 4 is perhaps the peak of the game quality overall. Not only it present more challenge and more feature to boot, you also presented with new system, a battle! If you ask me, i recommend this game for the balance and management resource given because not only you have to cut down trees without care who do that, you are also tasked with the limited crew for starter. No, you can no longer build whatever without enough crew on the field. Becasue in order for you to expand your business- i mean, inquisition, you have to "convince" the people to work for your cause. I would say you better off play the story for a few chapter to get a grasp what to do and i hardly recommend it because you will most likely get lost and can't tell why everyone don't want to work with you.

How do you convince those people to join? Why, open a chapel and help their settlement by upgrading them of course. And i don't know if its intentional but townie would come to your chapel once every specific date...someone did their research eh? You can also convince them through trading. At first you can only sell bread but after upgrading the trading post, you can sell artifact and script. Yes, who need Arthur excalibur and holy bible when you can just sold them for...ahem...inquisition needs?

Right, the battle part. Townsmen 4 introduce rivalry but how the battle ended is depend on how well your Cathedral is managed. Yes, Cathedral is your soldier barrack in this game. The battle run on rock-paper-scissor system but here's the tricky part. Those option won't be available right off the bat. Like i said, it all depend on how you manage your Cathedral. If you expand it to max, you can pull off rock-paper-scissor in full swing, or rather sword-holy water-script on this case. Poor Cathedral managemen will only let you use swords and that's no good.

What about the sandbox? Yes, they bring it back. But instead of randomized terrain, its fixed this time. depend on some type of map, you can pick a map where your rival is present. The Pagans! Yes, that's your rival name here, Pagans. See that big pink pig statue there? That's your cult rival in which you will have to mingle with on story mode. Oh right, the story mode is alright in my opinion, but they can be pretty much merciless from the start. I mean there's a time you have to make yourself look poor under 100 days when you were told to get 1000 golds beforehand. Sounds petty, but let me tell you...ITS NOT!

Oh well, cult stuff can be such a dull stuff to deal with...how about we kill some dragon? No, not that dragon from that game. This one.

 

"The milking that do justice"

Townsmen 5 is actually...oh well, i won't put it past you, its pretty much like Townsmen 4 reskin. There i said it. Only now you fight dragons and the environment seems to be setup around...Saxon reign? I don't know, you tell me. The system run pretty much the same like Townsmen 4 so you won't get lost that much or need to learn what do and don't on the beginning. What i can say its still worth getting is they seems to tone down the difficulty for story mode for the first few chapter, something that Townsmen 4 fail to deliver. Look, i'm up for the challenge, but when you throw challenge right off the window to the jaw of death literally on stage 3, it would be too much for introduction to the game. 

Since i'm gonna be a broken record explaining things, i just make the point here...

• In order to get the crews up, you have to put pressure on settlement instead of sermon.
• To get income early, you have to build tax collector instead of trading post. Thing is, while trading post on Townsmen 4 would bring you crews after few encounter, tax collector however do the opposite as it discourage people to work with you. So you have to put pressure to stay in green for keeping the crew numbers.

That's it, that's the stark difference between 4 and 5. However when it come to battle, thankfully the developer was being creative there. They didn't recycle the battle system but instead they opt for catapult throw minigame. Depend on your barrack quality, you can have 3 tries on shooting down the dragons. If you only have piss poor barrack, you only have one shots and even worse, long loading times. The dragons would come from just one to straight 3 in a rows so make sure keep your barrack as high priority on map with dragon lair around.

The way you fight depends on where the dragon are, their distance, and of course your bullet trajectory. Bring up the numpad! 

To be fair, i would say this mini game is pretty much like Centipede on NES, sort of. The numbers indicate where the rocks are thrown. 123 are the highest, 456 is the middle, 789 is when the dragons are too close for comfort. Not just that, when you see dragon fly up high on the top left, then you have to press 1, or 3 in case its right, or 2 if they were straight line toward your catapult. Should they get closer, then you have to focus on 456 instead, and all the way down to 789. They function the same, only different distance. Simple right? Trust me, its simple, you can master it a few times just fine!

What happen if you win the fight? Well you caught the dragon. For what? Harvesting their blood. Just like what King Arthur teach us! 

 

"Shiver me sea cucumber! Never heard BDSM with dragon before!"

And as you can tell, the game had sandbox too, similar to Townsmen 4. You can have peaceful map with nothing going on, or with the dragon ruining your day at every corner. I say it doesn't put up much challenge than 4 but hey, if its good game then its a good game, give some credit where it due, at least the reskin doesn't feel too redundant to play. I mean, at least we can live off fantasy seeing BDSM dragon, because that schmuck over there are hungry for...VIVA LA REVOLUCIONE!

"The very last Townsmen that touch Java era. How they manage to convert that to Android is truly a tech wonder...i love saying that!"

Townsmen 6 pretty much step up the game to another setup. While we have mingle a long time with Kingdom fantasy setup, Townsmen 6 decide to put us on France revolution era. No, it won't be as controversial as AC Unity or something, but you get the idea. When i first play this on my Nokia 6600 fold (flip phone if you prefer), i was...blown away. I mean, looking back to Townsmen Java and Townsmen 2, i can't believe this is where we at. The graphic are nice, the green field are lush, and you can tell from this how much i highly recommend this for you to play it, even though there's already Townsmen for Android instead of port.

Townsmen 6 carry the good system from its predecessor but instead they put everyone to work instead of just idling most of the time. Unlike the predecessor, even on max upgrade, you might find some building still lacking crew. That's because the dev intend to put a gap in gameplay pace so you don't finish the challenge given on the get go. Sure it kind of scummy in a way but hey, just in case you don't know, Townsmen 6 is free to play so no big loss. But given the fact that i still manage to play the game and max out everything, this is pretty much my wet dream of Townsmen since 2008. Yes, i'm not joking, i would run my mouth about this game as much as SimCity because my words, seeing the daring step, stumble, and blunder, here they are coming with a good city building game. 

As for the gameplay, the game decide to not asking you to convince settlement to work for you but instead, you build those settlement yourself. But seeing the game dev already learn what work and don't, they limit how much settlement you can build until you upgrade your other building and do some research on university. Yes, there's research feature there but i assure you it won't put you on hold too much. I don't find the needs to tell you how to wing this game, just do what the basic tutorial told you at the start and you can explore the possibility from there. Anyway, its normal to lacking crew on the beginning, this is part of the game challenge to tell you to manage your human resource wisely and i say the message did deliver. You don't need tons of worker on woodcutter and fishing hut when one person is already enough to fill the bill, which mean you either put them to idle state or throw them somewhere else to keep the business going. Keep in mind that everything here is considered limited so if you ask me what to upgrade or build first, my best bet would be to upgrade what has become an inconvenience to you. I would say storage would be your first issue before the settlement. 

Right, university. This building is pretty much like Trading post on Townsmen 5 or Chapel in Townsmen 4. They might don't offer much, but they vital regardless to put real progress on your gameplay. Once you build university, just putting one crew should do you fine. Its okay to be that slow anyway because you need those crew to keep business running, at least in my opinion. Thing is, university run on coffee beans. And no, you can't plant coffee beans. You can only buy it through merchant. Which mean that before you build university, you might as well build marketplace first just in case. Oh and speaking of market, you are also limited to buy resource. Think of it like you already bough everything that merchant has to offer to you. Like i said, it might be a nuisance, but you'll manage just fine.

Once everything set and university begin to work, that's where RNG come. You might get upgrade you don't actually want, but its fine! Lucky for you it won't give you overlap result so if your crew already discover upgrade for settlement level 2, they won't get that same result again and only advance to Level 3 if you already upgrade the settlement to level 2 beforehand. I might not helping here but its pretty simple to learn.

As for the story? Uh...i'm sorry, i only play the sandbox. Oh right, the sandbox for this installment are using the randomizer again just like Townsmen 2 but more robust and you can see the result pretty much. One more thing i would really like to mention is, the immersion of building upgrade. Since Townsmen 2, upgrading building won't change their looks at all. In here, they literally change every time they upgrading. Now THAT is quality of life i would love to see in any city management games!

Before i end this, i have to remind you to never build warehouse faraway from the working area. When you build the warehouse, every worker will drop the resource there instead of your mansion. Even though the mansion was closer, they will prefer to walk long way to reach warehouse just to drop the resource they get! My advice? Don't build warehouse too far from working area, and if possible, build another warehouse to cover every working area distance. Don't say i didn't warn you!

Alright, that was some journey there. Can't believe myself either when i see the simple humble city building/management are now become what they are now. You might wondering about my thoughts on new Townsmen on Android. I play it, but i don't feel i would be in love as much with the Townsmen 6. I also don't play it much despite the fact i own the PC version so i won't talk about that, Not to mention the prestige system is pretty much a nuisance and make the game either too easy or too long to progress. Nah, just stick to Townsmen 6.  I didn't say Townsmen Android/PC is bad, they decent to the very least. I just lack the love to give for them after great experience i had with Townsmen 6 to this day. I might being petty here but the moment i find out the building upgrade no longer change their looks, its already turn off.

So! What kind of phone game you play way back then that still continue to this day? Better cherish it guys, good times never come back twice. Elena shutting off~

[Elena Ichinomiya]

...Let's just get to the point. I don't like talking much about this company anyway.

Dear Square Enix...
You're a deaf blind crippled digital harlot of a company. The end.

Seriously...
I always said i never fond of Square Enix but no hate whatsoever. I play a few of their game and i admit its good. Though i didn't get addicted to it as much as Trails series, i won't deny how good their games are. But we don't talk good thing about them today. Look, if you're on business run, i won't nag you for running NFT, its your business. But the reason why i also mock this SE project in the first place is, not only their idea was outdated and won't gonna work as effective as they claim, they also openly want player to play to pay (their Lawson bento box) and expect people to celebrate it. They either out of touch or intentionally disconnect themselves to the world to shift their company to business centric folks. The real beef here is they put the known IP as their NFT project. Had it been some original stuff made for NFT while leaving those popular Ip alone, that would be fine. But instead they run their gear on their popular IP, hoping it can piggyback the success, only to shut themselves off from critic out of fear of their anger before it even begin. You ask for it SE, deal with it you cow!

Look, i'm dumb, i don't understand NFT concept as deep like others. But the fact that i had to put a lot of bucks to some beggar with ties just to get a jpeg that i can get away off with print screen on my keyboard, or better yet, made one on Waifu Lab of all places, its baffling. Yes i know its not that simple but at the end of the day, you can run off with those picture. Sure you can resell it, but it prove to me how unreliable NFT is. Oh and one more thing, they call it unique. Dude, your 10K arts is basically swap off assets, i'm no artist but even i can tell you're creatively bankrupt which is rich considering its Square Enix. Sure they don't innovate much gameplay after Left Alive- i mean Quiet Man- I MEAN! Final Fantasy, but when it come to artistry, i admit they were over the top. And now this is where they at? Guys, i hate to break it to you but...commissioning people for drawing some art of a character you love is far cheaper than buying this, i tell you. Sure you can't resell them, but what's the different from NFT and art commission? You get piece of JPEG that you can print and put a frame on with only difference is you don't have to deal with stock price headache. What's. The. Difference, Picasso? 

Oh right, did i say they shut themselves off from critic? Bet you heard the news already. I always heard that whatever Asian do, it could turn to extreme compared to when western folks doing it. But i never thought such extreme stupidity can be put miles high like this.

Square Enix, you're officially topple Konami in wonky business model and level of ignorance, with crappy library of games far above Capcom on PS3 era as of now. Yes Octopath Traveler is great game but what else do you have? Quite Man? Forspoken? Left Alive? Balan Wonderworld? With that kind of resume, what make you think people would be interest in this NFT? Heck, you even let this wonkiness slide as your advertisement you scab!

"I always dabble my profile picture on PIXLR site and even i know how layer works. Go ahead, buy them. Please. So i can laugh at you"

Madness. Pure madness. I just don't get it but hey, anything to put a dinner on your family table right? Right. Where's that money coming from? Where? Piggy banks...thank you for giving me legit reason to officially hate you than Bandai Namco and KOEI. Next!

---

Honestly?
I don't give much mind to who or what Suicide Squad is other than they could've pick better name than that. But i did watch the film include the mixed review Justice League. I know a few character there as result but we know we're not talking about that, do we?

Just Stop
One of my subscribed channel did talk about this so i decide to listen to the whole fiasco. I thought the problem would be a monetization but turn out, it bleed to the gameplay as a whole. That's not good. I decide to see the trailer myself and i say...you sure this is Suicide Squad? I don't know guys, when i see those name and where it came from, i expect some sort of...i don't know, equivalent of (at least) Gotham Knights? What i see is just another shootie bang bang and that's it. Yes it has other thing to offer in combat but its still mainly a shootie bang bang in third person...

I don't know what the big deal about this when you can literally run off with the similar gameplay system on Left 4 Dead. Yes, i said that, believe me i tried. Just get the skin on workshops, weapons skin, 3rd person mods inputted on console command, boom, Suicide Squad Zombie Edition. It might not be a Suicide Squad game you dreamed of, but at least you can play it offline. I don't get it, why they put everyone with guns? This remind me of Digimin World 4 where they give Agumon a dual handgun or sword or greatswords when his main ability is fireball attack. Its pretty much like giving Pikachu a UZI and it never use any shock attack on their enemy, its not the same character we know, it kill them even. I mean sure, guns might be the core part to balance the gameplay, but we see many co-op games in which each character has their own perk and it work. Putting everyone on equal ground will leave player nothing to work with, ironically, because everyone will do the same job that others can take care of. Now that i heard this game turn out to be looter shooter and also online only? Nah, they swindle us again. Warner Bros did it again. 

Go get it on discount when it released if the final product remain the same as the trailer. You guys deserve better. Heck, your wallet deserve more time to remain thicc.

Elena shutting off~

Edited March 18, 2023 by Elena Ichinomiya

[Elena Ichinomiya]

2008, the year where everything fun is happening in my region. Gaming included. It is also a year where internet start to peaking up in interest at my region despite the fact its already a thing on 2005. But come to think of it, 2008 is a year where i learn that website isn't always just all read and all bore when you can put something else to make it interesting. Games! Boy, do i remember there's never a single news site full of flash game back then. Even Yahoo! Anyone remember Yahoo? Oh dang, i'm old...

Err...well anyway, i want to talk about this specific web game that i honestly don't know the real purpose was. Its not a game from deep web but if anyone ever revamp this and put it on deep web, i think it would fool any Gen Z for a sec thinking it was real footage or something. What am i rambling about? This game right there officer...

"Now that i think about it, this game might (scratch that, it is already) count as lost media..."

What is this?
Hotel 626 is, despite the visual, is actually a browser game. Yes, a browser game or some of you would refer it as web games. Not PS or XBOX, but Mozzilla and Chrome. Hotel 626 consist of point and click game but instead of finding missing stuff or escape-like genre games, it run with combination of interactive FMV (i think?) and flash game format that at the time, blew the people mind. Why this game left such mark on me? Because at the time of this game release, i was playing Silent Hill 4 The Room. Seeing the similarity of the environment, except its a hotel, i just give it a shot. Though i knew this game from my big sis who also discover it through the word of mouth.

It is also noted that this game cannot be played if you play it on daytime. Don't believe me? This is what greets you if you try to play the game on broad daylight.

"Oh by the way, you have to register an account to play (and will send you ads email usually, but somehow there's nothing as far as i can tell), its free"

Yes, the game won't let you even sign in when they see you're on broad daylight. But how do they know that? Your IP? That's illegal! Of course not my dear irate hotel guest, they detect it through your system clock. By all mean, if you want to persist on playing, change your clock and they'll get you through. But i'm not a coward! I'm Elena! If i can beat Silent Hill 4 with a shout and shudder, this shouldn't be difficult to- it kind of did.

You see, this game require camera and mic to play, though they're not used as often since the game focus is point and click, if you want the full experience, you have to set it up. But because we talking about 2008 game on web browser, this game sometimes refuse to detect both of it. Believe me, it always happen to me! Its not your fault or the game, but your browser! Hey, remember that time when you see someone desktop filled with IE, Mozilla, Chrome, Safari, or maybe Netscape? Yeah! Those folks probably trying to play this game too! Anyway, when it come down to that, all you need to do is simple. Change your browser. Because sometimes some browser plugin tend to get in the way of input device; heck, back then even Chrome had difficulty loading a flash game believe it or not. I remind you again its 2008, mic and webcam is pretty much grand luxury for many people so some browser don't put that device as first priority to function seeing not much people have that on their hand than it is today.

Now then, let's get to business...

The Gameplay Feels
Keep in mind this is still a basic run-of-the-mill web browser game so don't expect a 60 hours of gameplay or something. The game start with you waking up after horrible vision. You will be greeted with FMV sequence that, at the time, would take century to load! On the first glance, you might think this is just glorified advertisement. Guess what? It is. This game was made as advertainment of DORITOS. Yes, i don't know what those people thinking but boy they overdid it if you ask me. Maybe they plan to make a universe of this like how Chex Quest did today? Who knows.

Now what i really like from this humble horror game is the transition between FMV and actual gameplay is very smooth. You won't be notified that you're in control so you always end up in high alert of sudden change. I'm going to be real with you, i died a lot on first stage when all i need to do is hover the mouse to the door on the right. Quirk of point and click game i guess. I don't blame anyone who play this game use walkthrough because you'll pretty much lost without it, especially a stage where you got trapped with madman. But can you imagine that in today gaming experience that you have to find walkthrough for an advertainment game! Does anyone in the mood to play P.T this weekend? Why are you running away guys!?

I also remember that if i want to have smooth sailing with this game, i need to put the brightness up for a little bit because my words! Stage 2 would trap you in complete darkness if i don't do that! I mean sure i kill the horror vibe but thing is, the stage 2 require you to chase after a dark figure, in the darkness, with only your camera. And no, there's no flashlights! That's why i have to put the screen brightness up a bit! And after that, just go Fatal Frame on stage 2 by moving your mouse after the running away figure and...

"Mamma...mmi-AAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Oh right, they also put a lot of effort for this advertainment because boy, they put everything to make this work. The ambience, SFX, the screaming, the visual except stage 2 because its too dark to see what the hell, its mind blowing at the time. I would even say that the effort to make this game would beat today game development. But come to think of it, P.T also has their credit. That game is just a teaser in case you forgot yet they were nominated for best horror of that year! 

Now you get the picture (no pun intended) about hotel 626 is about. It might be point and click genre that would bore you just from reading it, but DORITOS really nail it deep for this one. Maybe because they know gamer mentality for being easily bored, they put various gameplay to put you on edge. Except the madman stage. I wouldn't say its exactly scary but more toward annoying. You see, that stage has passcode to escape and you need to find the answer through the red line on the wall. And no, you can't spill the answer to your friend because the answer is auto generated. You only have three tries though or else the madman who share a room with you would escape their bind have a good time with you...no really, i mean that. It has SFX that imply you got killed but the scene was pretty much implied you-gonna-get-anal. Well having too much anal can be deadly but give me a break. Anyway, why it become annoying is the game, wait for it, sometimes don't let you pass even if the answer was correct! How ironic saying that after complimenting it...but hey, you know what they do to make that stage less of a headache? Skip button down below the game over screen, baby. Maybe the dev aware of the bug and decide to put that button just in case? Who knows, I'm outta here...

Speaking of baby, this is where your mic come into action. Again, the dev anticipate this part of game in case you don't have mic with you. 

"...! ....? ...! ...!? ...@$#%!"

Yes, they want YOU to sing lullaby...or just blow the mic is fine too. As long as you don't end up too quite or loud, you're doing fine. The game did want you to sing every time the kid is stirring up so i end up holding my mic close. What about those who don't have mic? Don't worry. See that mic icon there? Click and spin it. Yes, that's all you had to do. Its ridiculous but its a nice feature as way to make your game accessible for everyone. But the rules still remain the same. Be quiet or loud...

"To be fair, we all look like that when our sleep is disturbed...i mean who doesn't!?"

Once we're dealing with that kid, your mic is useless now. Yes, you only use that for that stage before it turn useless. But the other feature is even worse. I don't remember the exact number of stages but i remember it wasn't a lot. There's this stage where you were trapped in dark room (the room where you print out photo from a film in case you're too lazy to google it) which has many hanging photo of, believe it or not, the folks who play this game before you! I'm not kidding! Anyway, the only mean of escape is blank photo and that's it. Oh right, someone will nab your ass if you're taking to long so there's that.

The game end with your character escaping the hotel and riding their car. Before they realize that the madman is also behind them smirking at you, still demanding a good time after your escape.

"That's why you always lock the door folks, especially if there's stranger inside!"

If you had your camera on, congrats! Your screaming face when seeing the ending screen are snapped and now become part of that dark room stage for the next guest of the hotel! "But Elena! I don't have webcam!" you mention. Don't worry the game just made a screaming white face trying to escape the wallpaper instead. Sad to say, you will not be included on the dark room stage should it happen.

In Conclusion
The game probably dated and won't be scary as much if they keep it up to this day. Call me bitter but i'll pick this horror advertainment over Evil Within franchise; who on earth get scared by that game? But keep in mind for such Advertainment game, this is way above and beyond and for that reason, i applaud DORITOS for their commitment and the dev team that i forgot who's the team name is. All of the hassle of registering, waiting for 6PM, setting up the webcam and mic, all for playing a simple horror game that can be ended less than 2 hours, i personally say its worth it. I mean P.T is no difference isn't it? Is just a teaser game but you need everything on and even walkthrough to get the full experience before you realize you just finished a teaser that felt like a final product. Same goes for Hotel 626, this game is advertisement yet i feel compelled to end the game even to reveal what was happening in Hotel 626. By the way DORITOS is not available in my country in 2008. We have Cheetos instead.

Despite being web game, Hotel 626 give me a nice experience to remember on the glorious 2008 of my gaming experience. Not to mention i also finished playing Silent Hill 4 too at the time, literally the first game i ever finished but also the first horror game i ever finished. Add that with hotel 626, i would safe to say, i have a happy teenage life in gaming. Hotel 626 is a game that i stumble upon that i don't mind to see again any day. Why? Well, you see, advertisement don't goes on forever; it will bleed the company funding and Hotel 626 is no difference, especially being a playable web game. So they stop this fun Advertainment journey in 2010. And given the fact there's no archive about this game, the game are labelled as lost media since. If you ever try to visit the site, you'll end up with PHP MyAdmin screen instead. Not sure why they didn't take it off completely but its better than being bought and become CP dark web sites which is downright  true horror in my opinion.

Oh right, let's just say DORITOS decide to put the game back up or let some crazy retro dev to kickstart this game from head to toe, is it worth playing? Why yes. Though i might personally skeptical now if i have to register first in order to play. But other than that, i would say give it a try should there's a chance. For now...

"Thanks for having me as your guest! Next stop, South Ashfield apartment. Elena, shutting off!"

[Elena Ichinomiya]

You know, despite my critic and spite toward some game, be it good turn out bad, bad turn out worst, worst turn out golden, i never claim to know how to made video game and the hurdle you have to tackle in order to get that code, sounds, visual, and any hundred other parts that i don't even recognize to work and playable. But thing is, what really get me to the nerve is when dev/publisher know they just made a bad stuff, realize its bad stuff, know they can fix the said bad stuff, but release the bad stuff anyway. I don't care what the excuse here is, deadline, wacky executive, rookie dev, whatever. Just get this, they know their stuff, they know what they capable of, they know what they need, and still choose to ignore it and hope people won't throw rotten egg at them? And then proceed to issue apology? And day one patch? We're way past that day since, what, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5! Some of you know how crazy that game is not to mention the day one patch. Might not as big as GTA V day one patch but at least GTA V can still be played on their 1.0 version and has everything ready to play!

Anyway, i'm talking about the hot stuff here. Heck, you probably been seeing it around anyway but hey, you have your own thought, they have their own thought, and so am i...

First of all, what the hell is this game theme suppose to be? Is this Borderland meet Vampire Masquerade? Fortnite x Back 4 Blood? I don't know but what i manage to grasp is this game is pretty much coop centric game pretty much like L4D. Why? Well did you just read what game i just mentioned? Yes, this is FPS game with vampire and salt for grenade or something. Look, i didn't play the game yet but the real issue i had with this game is how much of a shameless show of laziness in game development circle ever. We're about to reach mid-year and someone already show another business model to screw people.

Honestly though? From the gameplay trailer, my mind just said it's a Hunt Showdown clone but more rowdy and loud. Hunt Showdown after all, need a good preparation, tactic and awareness of your surrounding include the rival hunter who can steal your hunt or even kill you. But Redfall seems to kick that concept out but still keeping the tactical play in mind with coop as their focus, which is good because if this turn out to be another looter shooter like Suicide Squad Kill Me Already, i would be depressed.

That Always Online Requirement Though...
First impression is everything. One can say its your project life and death. Either you made it big, come out okay, plain rejected with revision suggested, rejected, or just screwed so bad you wish you don't even bother stand there showing your face on the office. This game don't seems to know what's good for them. Look, i'm aware if this game are coop centric, i get it. But why the hell you need internet when you want to play single player mode? If such requirement exist on Left 4 Dead, there will be fire up the VALVE ass too. And no, that's not DRM either, its the core feature of the game. Like, what the hey guys? Why add single player mode when i still need internet for it? What was that for? To sync the game to cloud? That's the job for the game portal! Not you! Don't give me a brick, i know BETHESDA has launcher but it was long dead now so i don't buy this excuse. Oh right, this game made by BETHESDA.

The Graphic Is Letdown But...
For all i care, BETHESDA never manage to impress much of player with their graphic showcase. However! They were known to mix match the gameplay to cover up those set back. In fact, i kind of glad they didn't put graphic upfront because had it not for that reason, i couldn't startup their milk franchise which is Skyrim. Redfall also share this kind of issue but like i said, the gameplay is their saving grace for this game-

It's not.

The Flow Of The Gameplay Is Stiff To The Bone!
I can't exactly tell how the gameplay was since i'm not one of the folks with review code to play it, but if you watch any gameplay showcase, include the IGN one (oh we gonna talk about it alright), it remind me of Skyrim missing animation issue or even goes as far to say it remind me of CS 1.6. Every single time the character/enemy turn around, it look stiff and their movement look janky or sometimes sudden. Maybe it was network problem that cause laggy animation but no, what you see is what you get. I know the game wasn't completely in full state release, but because they show people that trailer, everyone will put a doubt. 

As i mention before, this is FPS game and as you might expect, you'll have to shoot and throw everything toward your enemy. And use your ability to defeat the enemy. I don't know how the game would progress but based from how non-reviewer gamer show us, its decent. Nothing innovative but its alright in my opinion. But it seems for anyone else, they expect much from the game especially from BETHESDA which i remind you, they were known for their mix match gameplay system. Oh right, they didn't put microtransaction yet do they? That's the issue! Case closed!

Did I Just Watch That?
Okay, you guys probably seen it already. IGN made an gameplay impression where they move so carefully as if they play Resident Evil, shooting air as if they fire a warning shot to shoo the enemy instead of shoot to kill, always jump around and throw something that never hit, fight enemy on tight space where they trap themselves, etc. I don't know how they even get away with this and why the publisher seems okay with this review to put on public and trust them to do a good job. Keep in mind that IGN get the code for early access which also come with a catch every time dev/publisher do this stunt. Don't believe me? SEGA with their Yakuza series (or any game developed by RGG Studios), forbid any reviewer who got early access code from uploading their gameplay impression without their permission first to see if its okay to upload or not (seems sketchy but i trust SEGA treat those reviewer fairly), while non-reviewer who bought the game on day one release are forbidden to upload any impression for a month when the game just released (take note CAPCOM!). This rule are made just so they can show people what kind of feature the game has to offer whent they play the game, which is why you always see gameplay impression can be boring because the reviewer would wander around to check something that they can interact with and not just focus on main story, hence the additional value for gameplay impression. For example, if you play Final Fantasy but only focus on story quest but never bother with side quest and other quality of life feature, people wouldn't know what is your game strong pursuit other than story. Or with Yakuza for example, you only focus on story, never do side mission or even Karaoke. That's not going to fly for promotion and people might think the game is Dynasty Warrior Street Fighter Edition instead.

Meanwhile Redfall seems okay with IGN piss poor gameplay as if it gonna help people get a clue what they get when they bought Redfall. Guess what, its not. IGN seems asking their security guy who just pass out from lack of caffeine to play the game and upload it as "eh, whatever, we do what they want us to do. We're IGN, crappy gameplay is our forte, politic talk on video game is our code!" and hope for the best. It wasn't. Both IGN and the dev/publisher were put to question why they let those trailer off. At least IGN did their homework with Sonic Frontier even though its not exactly good. But that trailer? It hurts.

FPS Game On 30 FPS
It's not entirely unplayable, but it do help if the frame rate reach consistent 60 FPS whenever it can. I used to play L4D 1 around 30 FPS and even i agree its better to play FPS game on 60 frame rate since it do help your aiming precision. Now now, i don't say i defend this game stunt for releasing game on 30 FPS on powerful console. I just put my thought before i spill my whole brain at this head scratcher decision.

First of all, why? Second, 30 FPS on powerful console? Third, 60 FPS on later update? Is the game not finished or something? Fourth, they very likely know this won't fly and instead of fixing it to get a good rating, they release the game on 30 FPS anyway while 60 FPS on next Fallout 9999 released. BETHESDA...What. The. Shite. Mate? Your game might look decent on gameplay value and the graphic is just okay in my book but with that kind of performance, you cap the FPS to 30? Why? Did the game crash when it reach 60 FPS? Please, for the love of anything, do tell us what's stopping you from releasing 60 FPS mode on powerful console...

Quote

When the overhyped, overpromised, overpriced, broken mess of a shameful game ever released in 2020 called CYBERPUNK 2077 has 60 FPS mode on their first day release!?

I'm not joking, Cyberpunk 2077, despite being hell of a mess, they had this QoL feature on day one! While Redfall, a game who might seems finding their footing, but at least seems to be working piece of game compared to Cyberpunk 2077, don't have that? I mean, come on, you release the game on XBOX who boast 120 FPS cap. But that's not enough for you to put more effort on gameplay on day one!? "But Elena! Cyberpunk is open world game! Redfall is FPS game!", listen hotshot, that's where this argument started. If Cyberpunk, an open world game, has the 60 FPS mode despite trying hard to process it due to how broken that game is...why Redfall who only has 4 player and 1 enemy on the environment that doesn't look rendered much from what i seen on trailer, doesn't have it? On day one! ON DAY ONE! 60 FPS is pretty much like standard nowadays and on console at that. And its very rich knowing the game coming from BETHESDA who now a Microsoft first party developer, and also XBOX property owner. Is Microsoft intend on filling the XBOX game with game like this? I remember there's one reviewer said they would feel blessed playing Redfall on XBOX soon. Not because they like the game or its a godsend of a game, but because they got it on game pass. That doesn't sounds good...

Dev/Publisher...
Being professional is one thing, but this is just lazy. Dev/publisher. I know you got deadline ahead of you or fans fanning flame at your office or something. But when you do this kind of stunt and think people will get over it, you know what they gonna do? Delay their purchase. Heck, some might got bitter and use the backdoor to get your game if you know what i mean. Online only mode is alright provided if its for multiplayer only. We saw what happen to SimCity, a game that was purely made for single player in mind, lambasted so bad the studio got closed. And then releasing weak game on strong console is an insult to both your fans and maybe the engineer who made that console. Sure you will get your money but by the time the flames goes out, people will have second thought, any project you plan out always be met with skeptic view, and any should-be long lasting goodwill from fans are forever or turn to be your hater. Guaranteed.

Quote

"I used to joke that gaming phrase nowadays is delayed purchase can be good while day one purchase out of hype will be forever bad. I was right"

- Elena Ichinomiya

Overall...
This is grand. Very grand. We always frown upon any dev/publisher who release game first then patch later. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 is one of it. But now we see a game developer company put their QoL as one of the patch later category. Grand, very grand. I understand if the QoL that was put on the last line is language option because there's many verb, pronouns, and other part of linguistic that can cause scandal if you don't handle it with care hence its fine if it come later. But core QoL like FPS? I would bet next time a new game released, we won't have volume adjustment for SFX, BGM, and Voice until later update. Sounds grand? It is. There might be a day where we have to wait for months for a proper Quit Game button to be released so we won't force closed the game or ALT+F4 out of it. 

QoL might be petty stuff to think or add most of the time, but if those petty things become such inconveniences for anyone to enjoy the game, it doesn't sounds petty anymore does it? then THINK!

Elena, shutting off~

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Its been a while, i thought the forum was locked due to inactivity but i guess it take longer than that for any thread to be archived. Anyway, so much going on while i'm away from ED in video games part. Yes, i'm gonna give my piece of thought about yesterday news. By the way, have you paying attention about the game called Wild Hearts was handled by EA and KOEI, in order to tackle Monster Hunter popularity only to be tackled back as Nioh MK2? Yeah, that happens. But at least those mixed review isn't about how the game perform so we can toss it aside for now. Right now i'm going to talk about the hot steel topic of Redfall and XBOX performance fiasco. Before you break a leg, no i'm not gonna talk about the acquisition part because i'm no business person to know what the hey. Just putting it out there...

"Reality hurts, unless you own game pass"

I already talk about Refall before but i really don't get it about their shortcoming. They know what the hell, they know what would happen, and still they going to release this. I think i don't have to mention that this would be the first game debut which made exclusive for XBOX first and foremost, the killer app if you want to overkill about it. You could say this might be second coming of Halo for XBOX but of course we won't talk about something amazing here.

First of all, i don't get it why the game were capped to 30 FPS on console. You know, when you play game on console, everyone would expect a full capacity of graphic and performance. Sure PC now offer more beautification but at the end of the day, the gameplay would play vital role when the graphic won't win you over. I already said that Redffall graphic would still lose against L4D because it is! At least poor visual and presentation (say no to PPT cutscenes, now!), if it was backed up by smooth gameplay, people won't mind much despite the stiff animation. But Redfall developer seems to pass out and the publisher forgot the definition of quality. 

Guys, this game are made for XBOX X/S, current gen of video game. Side by side with PS5. An exclusive item to make people interested to buy XBOX at the very least. And they release the half cooked stuff like this? We saw what happen to Saint Row Reboot, that end up so well. But at least Saint Row Reboot wasn't made for XBOX X/S killer app. Redfall is. With all this fiasco going, i can't help myself but think, "what if the problem wasn't lies on the development but the console itself? Get a load of this...

"When news about you hit hard, it will hit you harder than your dad belts. Period"

Not very long after, the news report that PS5 somehow can run the game better in various aspect. The resolution, FPS, frame lock, quality or performance mode, things seems to be going well for them. And the real kick is, the game made by XBOX owned itself run far better than on XBOX itself. What is going on here? Sure visual stuff is petty but when the console load faster and handle the gameplay better, you know where people would flock to. People buy a console to play game, of course that would matter. And somehow XBOX cough up in the middle. Some example include AC Valhalla where PS5 manage to lock the resolution at consistent 1440p while XBOX went behind with 1188p. Petty? You think. But in action game like AC Valhalla, any framerate would impact the immersion immediately. Going back to Redfall again, which i remind you its a first person shooter game, having 30 FPS would hinder your performance. Guaranteed. Ask any CoD veteran and told them to play the good old CoD Modern Warfare on recommended spec instead the latest game gear to run the game on 30 FPS. They will shoot you for it.

This remind me again of the day when XBOX One released. Not only they screw us up with Kinect, they also face the bane of red ring of death, and not just a few but a lots of gamer face this issues. This is all happening because Microsoft went wild after PS3 announce their release date and XBOX was still trying to improve kinect at the time, had to push the schedule, hence the sloppy manufacturing. I can't help but think this very factor once again appear for XBOX X/S because a sloppy manufacturing. Not only affect gamer but also game developer because it also impact the architecture to run the game on the said console. Which is pretty much what happen to PS3 for having difficult architecture for game developer to work with, causing some game not ported to that console. At least PS3 won't die on you on day one, but its still crappy situation to work with.

Seeing Redfall had some cough up with the console it belong, and with history of Microsoft getting their beard on fire, i can't help something is connected to one another. Like i mention before, performance isn't the only thing that XBOX seems to have issues with, though not much of big deal at some part. I'm not saying this because i'm fan of PS mind you, but seeing fellow gamer stuck with console that supposed to be more powerful than any console we had at the moment, even i have my sympathy. People want to have fun equally, that is what video game console made for, nothing more. What is going on with XBOX, no one sure. But seeing the hype is down, as always, come the ugly head. At least Sony already shows it by banning 3rd party custom console plates and overpriced crappy PC port of remastered games. Who knows what waiting for us next. Who say gaming as hobby is cheap and less stressful?

Elena, shutting down~

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Hello, it's me Elena and her joystick though she actually often use mouse and keyboard than joystick even when playing Yakuza and Dynasty Warriors. I know i've been lagging with my gaming experience but i assure you i still remember the purpose of this thread. I've been planning to talk about my experience and thought about Silent Hill 2 original release on PC, since i play that one and not to mention i did talk about Silent Hill 4 a few pages ago. And another long agenda is the Dept Heaven series which exclude the non-translated one because, well, they're not translated and i don't speak Japanese let alone figuring out their writing. But i might opt to write my experience with RTS since i've been hitting that genre for sometimes. But we'll see about that. Hopefully the wait is worth it. Now on to the main shows.

---

You know, people was right when they said that the first experience is the unforgettable experience. Not just sex mind you, it could be food tasting, water tasting, product testing, program testing, etc. Unfortunately the news i have to react to this time is pretty much causing a bit of PTSD to some of you who live by the gaming era of battle royale way before PUBG become free to play. What am i talking about? Well that!

"We'll focus on PVE fiasco"

You know, i almost got hooked over the fact there's PVE on this game. I'll be honest with you, i'm not PVP afficionado despite my play hours on DOTA 2. So as a pleb, this mode might be the reason for me to give OW2 a try. I mean sure i criticize their business model a few conversation ago but this is a game mode. Blizzard almost got me until they decide to cancel it for some reason. I was thinking that maybe this mode was too much for a live service. But no, OW1 did have PVE and it was praised. Some even admit that they play OW on that mode alone, same as me who play DOTA 2 on turbo mode instead of rank or unranked for alternative way of having fun to spend play hour on that game. Which is vital for live service game by the way. Somehow OW2 manage to kick their playerbase harder than HALO Infinite given the fact that at the very least HALO Infinite try to fulfill their roadmap. Sure their split screen fiasco was a mess but that wasn't part of the roadmap to begin with. OW2 already promise PVE and decide to pull the rug when the people already stand in line for it. Instead they introduce a feature that should be at launch on faraway season. You know how hard i holding my laugh when i see the firing range and player progression system is available on season 6? This game isn't their first rodeo so what's the hold back? I get it if its 2nd or 3rd but 6? And it was launced same time as their anniversary! It take you one year, for a BASIC FEATURE!? Blizzard, for joystick sake, sorry to compare you to non-FPS game but even DOTA 2 has testing ground way before season pass hit their first mark. Where have you been?

And by the way, some people did make a shoutout about new support hero because not much people play support on OW2 than in OW1. I guess they add another homework on top of another homework on their anniversary. Happy birthing day i guess.

I can't put much thought about this fumbling. OW2 remind me of The Culling. The Culling is a battle royale game which focus on meele than guns. You could say this is Manhunt online or first Naraka if you want to. The game was infamous for that reason but for some unfathomable reason, the dev pull the product and deliver a discount PUBG that make even PUBG 1.0 blush. No one likes it, and add that with wonky business model, it seal the coffin nice and tight. Same thing with OW2 which not only they butcher their own success by deactivating the OW1, they sell a recolor stuff instead actual skin worth keeping like in OW1 (i admit i like the design there), questionable approach that make player grind like crazy over a game that was supposed to be a past time activity, and now this? You know, DOTA 2 (you gonna hear this a lot) manage to stay in the frontier of MOBA genre is because they offer alternative mode that suit some player playstyle which is why most people lounge around there despite being a LoL or Smite players for all i care. Even goes as far to feature an Arcade mode where you can upload your own map and scenario using the Source Engine code. Sure OW2 has other game mode but if the theme are remain on competitive, i personally find BF4 far more fun than OW2 just from the looks of it, heck i find more excitement over TITANFALL despite only attrition mode that remain active to this day when it come to competitive mode. The PVE mode is a nice break for those who don't want to be in competitive or feeling obliged much to fulfill their role to won the game. That's the point here, keeping the non-PVP player around among PVP playerbase. Live service live in numbers of active player. What OW2 manage is to kill one of their playerbase among others. But hey, they still around so i guess they'll be fine. Can't wait to see myself creaming under my panties when the Firing Range finally available next year. And cutscene, ohh~ whose excited for cutscene. Blizzard, that's who.

But i'll be honest with you guys, if it come to PVE, Monster Hunter would still be my #1. Even when they're being Crapcom (2010-2017 Capcom) for some reason they don't screw up MH. Remember DMC Donte? Lost Planet 3? Yeah, THAT. Anyway, has Capcom move on from remaking circle? Yeah...gonna be next decade for DMC 6 eh?

Elena, shutting down~

[Elena Ichinomiya]

You know, we had a lot of kick on the shin ever since the words live service and DLC being flaunted around. And since then, many good to decent game become bad to totally pain to play. I mean, look at FIFA. Back then it was a hot stuff even on my region until they start to lick the monetization that caught their beard on fire. And for DLC part, look no further than Asura Wrath and Middle Earth who lock some ending behind pay wall. Yeah, crazy as thing goes, luckily gamer always find way to tell dev/publisher how shitty that move was. Asura got mediocre review at the end of the day, Middle Earth got scorching earth of review from journalist and gaming alike. You know, i really don't get it why they even bother to do that when its clear the reason why people pirate the game is because some inaccessibility. We already had region lock BS thing and now they add that to our hobby? Not gonna happen. And they dare to ask why piracy still thrive. Anyway...

"This game is not exist as a bad game, but a reminder that what you consider bad, are at the very least working from start to finish"

I don't play this game so i can't review how bad it is as a whole. But based from many sources i manage to get, this game is not just jumbled mess but also a bore to play with. I even agree that when they said the game looks like from shovelware developer, it is look like shovelware game. I don't know what engine they use here but they manage to botch it if they think they can get away with 70 bucks for Unity game. For the record, not all Unity game are bad. Just look it up, you'll be surprised many of the games you played run on that engine. Anyway! Gollum seems to dare the video game appeal by putting you in role of someone that doesn't seems...well, appealing to begin with at least if you're not familiar with Gollum lore in their original works. But this is where i put my opinion at.

You see, i play a lot of game where i don't play as human character excluding MMO genre. Orc, fugly elf, dogs, cats, ducks, scaly dragon, wisp, any form of character you had in mind, i already been on their shoes. Thing is, i don't pay much mind about those character because the game they were in are a good one which result in me having a good time. Gollum stuck on gameplay loop that was so mundane that you would see the better solution for this little mistake. The dev write this game off as stealth game but you bet your ecchicredits you would find stealth game on flash game sites more fun than this. 

Look, stealth game can be tricky bunch and you might think its simple stuff but no, you might see Hitman do its homework like nothing but the dev really put whatever they had in mind to make the game don't feel too linear hence the creative kills which drive player to give the level a try. Gollum don't even try that, heck you can't do stealth game on a broken game in case you forgot. Stealth game is underrated genre because not all gamer are calculative people. Heck, i'm not even going stealthy on Assassin Creed much back then until i learn how to properly do it. And because the stealth genre has decent player base than RPG, the dev had to be creative in their world building that let player imagination to finish their task, fun, which resulting in Dishonored franchise and of course, HITMAN. 

Back to the character appeal, Gollum might put you on the shoes of someone you less likely to pick on first try if there's any other. But thing is, Gollum had everything ready for it. The character, the lore, the looks, the environment they stuck with, the conflict, its all in the books. Many games who tackle on unappealing character had difficulty because they had to put story and lore to make player has connection with them. Gollum had it easy but its all botched because LOTR enthusiast claim that this Gollum is pretty much dumb and indecisive character while in books, they were brilliant minded bunch that people had to watch out for. Don't get me started but i do watch LOTR at some point and see how Gollum act. I thought the Gollum they inspired to make is different Gollum but no, they take that very same Gollum and it went so well. That's why i say they botch it because of this main factor and like i said again and again, its tiring to play as character that you can't relate to.

All that happening with addition of broken mess, this is where my thought begin to wander. This game, along with Forespoken and maybe many others are a reminder to us. That any mediocre game you own right now, are pretty much blessings in disguise because it function both from mechanic perspective and story wise.

You see, when Sonic Frontiers was released, people were baffled by how underwhelming the game at the end despite being released by triple A studios. But after that game, guess what we have next month. Forespoken. And then another lump of disaster after another. At that point, i begin to agree that you don't have to waste a good visual and ambitious gameplay when the game you deliver are not exactly grand to begin with (remember Gollum is stealth game). Saint Row reboot for example, it has nice visual but when all those gigabyte wasted on graphic instead of gaming immersion...i begin to question. Is it worth it to waste a good 90 GB of space consist of 70 GB for graphic texture, 10 GB for lossless audio, 5 GB for DLC content, and 5 GB for actual game content? I really question that. 

Call me picky if you must, but it really make me wonder. Those guys make a video game, not video, why waste all the big canvas on visual alone? Sure its nice to have good graphic but just good seems not enough for them so they push the limit of your VGA by put a load of texture that you probably dismiss once you finish the game and even worse if it it's bad or broken game. Nah, count me out. 

This is the reason why i call Gollum (and Forespoken) as reminder for video game dev that, you better be grateful the game at least work from start to finish with so-so visual and just okay storyline and still worth its 60 bucks price for gamer wallet. Don't believe me? Yakuza 0 when it was on day one release, its graphic are not that impressive compared to their other half which is Y6 made with dragon engine but guess what, people flock and play that game, and some major VTuber even, has no issue playing it, because they had a lot of things to do on that game world to play around and show it off on stream. Big space doesn't mean you have to hog it all for the sake of whatever, but it has to function to impress. If the world building you made end up with lots of walking and teleport, congratulation, you're the very game dev i'm talking about right at this moment. But if the world has other thing that worth doing even if it look mundane, i say you manage it well. The key here is, just take what you need, not what you think you need, and make it function as possible. Even if the immersion is just sitting down on chairs, i still gonna give thumbs up. You think how much happy i am when i learn i can sit down on Skyrim? That's a start. Even on Genshin, i did give similar impression because my thought goes like, "this has potential for not to be total bore after so much grind". But too bad they just stop there though you can put more immersion on Skyrim through mods at the very least but that's someone else works, not dev themselves. 

Just imagine if those 90 GB consist of just 50 GB for graphic texture, 10 for audio, 5 for DLC, 25 GB for game content? It might sounds like dev/publisher nightmare to invest to but that's gamer wet dream at this point. Again i remind you, they're video game creator, not animator, 90 GB game consist of more graphic than meat inside? Sorry to say, even 20-40 GB games with quality of Rune Factory 5 somehow manage to squeeze more fun for me because the dev only take space they needed to show their arts, not just show off.

From bad game to open world talk, guess this conversation goes everywhere eh? Again, just give it a thought. 90 GB open world where you mostly do is walk and teleport. Worth the trouble? I don't know dev, i personally feel my creativity is being insulted knowing the world i made is pretty much skipped at most of the time.

Elena, shutting down~

[Elena Ichinomiya]

It is always become our personal attention when nostalgia hit us like a truck; even though i'm sure most of us never got hit by truck because if you do, how do you even here then? Anyway, i'm in the mood to talk about some horror game, a second horror game i manage to play till the end after Silent Hill 4. I think you know what i'm gonna talk about here. Considering that company got new CEO and remember that their company CAN make video games...actually no, they don't make anything new yet, just remake, but hey, that's a start, gah! Enough! I'm in the mood to talk about this one here officer...

"Yes, i did play this on PC, literally 4 years later after i finished SH4"

Impression of The Series?
Ironically, while SH4 is the first silent hill i manage to play to the end (getting all the ending too), SH2 is actually the first silent hill i played. I stopped because i don't get the riddle. Mind you, the first time i play SH2 is around 2008, i'm still mid-schooler back then and my English is lit, how am i suppose to solve riddle when everything look like scribble? Thing is, after i finished SH4, i look for recommended SH franchise to play which consist of SH2, SH3, Shattered Memories (color me surprised), and SH1. Seeing i won't be able to play SH1 anymore, i had to emulate it but boy, while that game is great, the tank control on PS1 controller is...i would say pretty much shows how tank control take time to get used to even in development cycle. Don't worry, i did finish that one so we might talk about it sometimes.

Back on topic, i decide to take a shot at SH2. At least by then i can grasp English better than my 2008 self. What can go wrong this time?

The Control
This might sounds weird because i play SH1, 2, 3, and 4 on PC. "But Elena! You play SH1 on emulator! Why don't use controller!" you might ask. Simple answer...i don't have controller at the time alright? But regardless it help me to compare the tank control in this game. Which make me wonder, what so bad about tank control? I find it no problem personally, but i think i know the reason why. Anyway!

Thanks to my experience playing SH1 wonky control feel, SH2 thankfully had far smoother tank control. I can't say about the response because i play SH1 on PC which might cause vary in value regarding to input response. SH2 on keyboard, yeah let just leave it at that, didn't put my hand into a knot. Every button placed conveniently which is good start. Unless you find the idea of holding SPACE and click to attack isn't your cup of tea. Speaking of which, i'm glad KONAMI didn't put a free aim on this game because you see, when you aim at the enemy, there will be auto-aim which prioritize closest enemy first. I mean sure free aim is cool but considering this game has fixed camera for cinematic reason and tank control, that would be disaster. Normally any game would only put aim-assist at the very least on console and remove it for PC version. But for SH2, they had this auto-aim for platform. Maybe they don't want to make it too action centric but then again, SH franchise never known for blasting head like RE did so there's that. 

PC Visual
Sad to say, similar to GTA SA, SH2 PC version had their visual toned down a bit especially the fog. In PS2 version, some fog linger on the screen to add the vibe of travelling to the unknown. But in PC, as i experience it, the fog just pass by, none of it linger. Its not that bad though. One thing that i also notice is the screen noise. In the PS2, at some area, you will find the screen has noise around it but on PC, it felt like its been removed? I don't remember exactly but the PS2 has more going on than PC. Again, its not that bad. Texture wise, the PC version follow the PS2 as it should be and thankfully, no stretch or blurred image as far as my travel in silent hill goes. Another thing that i do notice is...PS2 version is a bit too dark? I don't know but in PC, i tend to find where enemy early in the dark area such as mannequin legs on the apartment for example. Its just that the flashlight on PC reflect the lights on enemy texture so you can tell something is there, with exception of Abstract Daddy since their texture are different it seems. And that Red Triangle fella.

Overall, the visual isn't overly butchered unlike those HD screw up. It didn't kill the whole experience but it would be nice to have those PS2 visual on PC version...you could, with mod that is. But eh, i can't make genuine talk about this if i broke the game already do i?

Gameplay
Thankfully SH2 didn't butcher any content or feature out of the picture. Though if you don't get SH2 director cut, you would be leave with just James story. One thing that i still find it intriguing back then is the option to pick the riddle difficulty which even to this day, is a rare option to choose from. On easy, believe me when i say you could solve this without even need to look up the walkthrough. On medium, one that i pick on my playthrough, it is tricky but not impossible. On hard, well, let's just say King Tut just woke up from his beauty coffin and preach on you why his coffin is more beautiful than your nose and fell asleep again because he got bored with his own preach...

Here's the example and comparison...

The Coin Puzzle. The very beginner killer.

Quote

EASY

"To the right is the lady.
To the left is the old one.

In the center crawls the other.

Now just two spaces remain,
But fear not for now,
The puzzle is done.
The puzzle is done."

(In this level, the game spare you the trouble from thinking too much and just head straight told you where to go and give you idea that you don't miss the rest of the coin; because there's just three)

NORMAL

"Three bright coins in five holes be

At one end sits
the Seducer of she

The wind from behind
the woman doth play

The Formless One,
Null, lies furthest from they

The Old One beside
the Serpent sits not.

'Tis to the Prisoner's left
that he doth rot"

(In my experience, the game did give you away the hint but with more language going on. But at the end of the day, the game told you right off the bat which coin which and where they goes. Tricky, but not too hard to figure it out)

HARD

"First lies the seat of
He who is Peerless
Silent and empty,
heartless and fearless

Beside him sits one who knows
The place of the servant is
next to the throne

Dozens of feet,
yet not a single toe
The One that is Hidden
beside him doth go

Seducer of dreams,
creature of Hades
Lying further from
Man and closer to Lady

Man and Woman seeing all
Heedless to the Raven's call

Silent and Hidden the two may be
They be not there for you to see

Return them to whence
they would be
And blessing shall
descend on thee

I speak thus with
the North Star behind me
The birth of the sun is
the start of the story"

(Not only cryptic, they also put a lot of distraction which might screw your brain a bit, forcing you to put up notepad; or just look up the internet really...)

EXTRA

"Like coins in the hazy
aether tossed
Our souls must by
their sinful weight
Descend to earth
with lightness lost

To "right" the sins
that they hath laid
When thrice in falling they intone
The Happiness shall be thy own

The first note be not by
the Horned One rung
Though it be there that
all sins be sprung

The Bringer of Life and
the Bringer of Shame
The sins of the latter be
even more tame

Though coming
in the Aged One's wake
The Formless One's soul
in fear doth quake

The Needless One, silent,
with hungers all sated
Is least then in sin
with his lusts all abated

For the gravest of sinners
His place be appointed
And if he be lucky
May his soul be anointed"

(I never dare this difficulty...i won't...)

The Whiteboard Puzzle. From one dead giveaway, to headscratcher.

Quote

EASY/NORMAL

"3rd floor patient wing hall - 7335"

The answer is 7335.

HARD/EXTRA

"The pin number this month is
‘T’. Last month it was ‘X’
and before that it was ‘Z’.
But what are they going to
do next month? That's all they
can express with 4 numbers.

Anyway does the door to the
Patient Wing really need to have
its combination changed this
often?"

(Easy does it?)

One thing that i notice, other than hint change and answer depend on difficulty you pick at the beginning, is some puzzle won't be solved or interact with unless you find the trigger first which either event or memo. Seriously, you can't interact with clock puzzle if you don't read the memo first. It might leave you on loop in most horror riddle game like this but SH2 manage to prevent such thing from happening. You will be isolated until you find that trigger so you don't waste a day walking around like morose person. Its not like SH2 is open world or something anyway, you'll find those notes.

Moving on, we already talk about control so let's skip that. The combat in SH2 might not be tier A, but i find it easy to maneuver around even on keyboard. Both melee and range weapon don't seems too wonky to use. Just keep in mind the auto aim won't active unless you close enough so even if you had those sweet rifle, sorry to say, the enemy must enter your safe space first before you can shoot them. But then again, SH never told us to fight our way to the end anyway since you can skip most of the enemy unless they get in the way, or if its scripted event. Speaking of script...

Story Impression?
Everyone always refer Silent Hill 2 as screwed up silent hill ever. If you compare it to every SH franchise, it kind of did. But the most screw up story is probably SH3 for me because hey, it involve pregnancy and abortion plus cult stuff, what else to screw off? Anyway, SH2, despite its humble backstory, still hold their story together. The attempt of detaching the universe from the cult stuff from SH1 is pretty much shown and not in forced way either. They put the cult stuff as hushed gossip instead, making the Silent Hill in SH2 is a universe of its own. 

Each character story are also relatable but also introduce us the stranger danger. Not everyone in Silent Hill are victim, yourself included. Everyone has their dark past that they can't move on and not over the top for your head to grasp the idea. Its this factor that make us think that stranger around us hold a secret that so dark, they live in their own world right this seconds. 

The story of our main character are also memorable. You see him as humble store clerk losing his wife but as story progress, you can see how desperate he is seeking his significant one who send him a letter that she's waiting at Silent Hill despite the fact that he KNOWS that his wife is dead years ago because of terminal disease. At first, i don't think much of it but the more i know James is, the more i'm concerned to the point i ask myself, "am i controlling a mental patient?".

The Most Memorable Moment?
One thing that you might find yourself hate is, other than Maria and Laura has capable to talk your ears out and chew it off while Pyramid Head busy himself cosplaying as Ichigo from Bleach, is when you were in the town roaming around. At first, i marvel in the level design and walk around a bit until i realize i should be heading to apartment after finding the key. And then bowling alley, and then hospital. It's strange. SH2 world building is supposed to be horror but that horror drive me to explore what else is there, what else is behind that fog, what else is hiding from our eyes due to hardware limitation. 

However those curiosity might be squashed when you really get lost and don't know where to go. At some point, the game hint you where to next but i'm not surprised if you got lost when being told to bowling alley and then go to behind strip club to progress, and then finally, you can reach hospital level. I really hate it when the game throw me in the loop but add that by being cryptic, its already too much.

Moving on, let's talk about the enemy and not just one specific enemy. Even though SH2 isn't directly connected to the cultism in SH1, you can still tell this town is really off and not from natural cause either. As Angela said on the beginning, the town is really off and wrong about it. It is only then you realize that every single enemy you face is James feeling manifestation from inside pain, longing, anger, dissatisfaction, and guilt. To utilize the fear and shortcoming of people and use it as their enemy is a great concept which later used in many physiological horror in the future. And the developer did a good job to reflect it. 

What most interesting is the theory that Silent Hill world building revolve depending on their victim perspective. In James eyes, Silent Hill is foggy town with weird stuff going on to mock his grief of the past. For Angela, Silent Hill is not just fog but also burning place as she refer to on your last encounter with her in which she response, "To me, it's always like this". To Eddy Dombrowski, Silent Hill is a good place to hide after his murder crime, which cause him to see manifestation as someone who bully him or threaten to report him, hence more "murder" attempt, making him more of a suspect than a victim. And then Laura, a girl who don't seems bothered by anything and even sit by in abandoned room in hospital like nothing. Its interesting because she always sounds confused when James ask her how she even manage to stay alive with all things going on. Its as if to Laura, Silent Hill is just, well another town on the block because most of her response is, "what are you talking about?".

In SH2, the town seems to function as an executioner for those who run away from their grief and crime. James killed his own wife and can't move forward from then on and since he had sweet memory on Silent Hill, the town seems to intrigue him to believe that his wife is there, only to be slapped with the fact that he did kill his wife and were forced to admit his guilt and struggle with it. Angela who suffer abuse from his father also not spared from her guilt for killing him in the end, because she use any excuse to cover her crime; think a snowflake on internet who use any excuse to accuse everyone is abusing them on forum because they talk back at them. Eddy is pretty much unfortunate character who get stuck in this town and think its a good hiding place which ironic considering the town seems trying to test him if he can get a hold of his temper, which he fail miserably. Laura had nothing because she didn't has any grief to think of or crime to run away from hence the town don't seems to bother her at all. It's as if Silent Hill change function depending on what kind of people who set a foot in that town.

But hey, that's just theory....

SH2, despite the age been treating them, its a great horror that i would dare say no one would ever compete. Sure there's other horror that might won many aspect of it but SH2 didn't put much cult and Cthulhu all over the place to excuse the world building. And it works. If we talk about SH1, sure many could beat them even in that very year of the release. But SH2 didn't had any cult going on. Just a vague tale about what happen to the town. And the people there, they're just a people who don't have any supernatural going on with them. James is a store clerk who seek his "missing" wife. Angela is abuse victim. Eddie is a bully victim. Laura is just a kid on the streets. No crazy clairvoyance stuff there. But it works.

In my opinion, SH2 horror is working because we can relate to everyone here. Losing someone hurts, being abused is horrible, pushed on edge of being bullied, and being ignorant about everything but your own world, we all been there. Compare that to any, perhaps many, Japanese/western horror who rely on supernatural that doesn't even had any business with the character you played most of the time, the fees just different. You can't say much to a character who can see ghost since birth. But Its easy to relate to character in the game if we have something in common for that character. 

And the world building in SH2 at the very least, are never over the top either. Sure SH4 has this point but the alternate world are still over the top for me. In SH2, the world is just as is. You just bumped to it. And because there's nothing over the top, that put plus in the horror value. When everything in your everyday life is turn out to be your execution place, the unsettling feels of getting out the situation is what add the real horror for me. Just get this, if you play a game about cult stuff, you already know who you facing and who has to die at the end, you're prepared. But SH2, you can't even tell who are your enemy until the end of the game. The game make you run for your life mostly because you're not a military person but a pleb. You seek the final answer and when you do get it, you're still not prepared for the outcome and story behind it. Its as if seeing someone who broke down at the court. You see the person on the court as just stranger but when they broke down after the guilt verdict, you'll see the true color and also second thought about that person. At first, i see James as a dude who lost his wife. After so many time playing the game, i take him as someone who has hard time to move on from his horrible crime. I felt nothing at first, but afterward, i can't say if James even a good guy. That's some good food for the thought does it?

Everything Considered
SH2 is not a bad game even after years since their debut. Both PS2 and PC version works for me personally. You might want to play the PS2 version because that's where every love been thrown at by the developer. But again, i remind you that there's no difference for both version. Just some visual tone down. But now that i think about it, PC at the time of this release are still a PC with that big butt monitor so perhaps they adjust it for CRT monitor instead LCD because, mind you, that was the most used PC monitor at the time. 

The control might need some time to get used to especially if you never play any game with tank control. But i assure you it won't get in the way.

SH2 might not be a free-roam horror game with strict camera use here and there but i would suggest anyone who dare to play the game to walk it off because that's where SH franchise actually shine. In fact, the remake of SH2 might offer more cinematic view angle but of course without tank control. 

"But Elena! Why tank control even exist!?" you might ask. I don't know why but remember, back then we had this for controller...

"You can't do 360 in 3D environment without analog now do we? I mean sure SH2 is released on PS2 which already has analog control but perhaps the dev don't want to kick the familiarity of this game control and also give some those sweet surprise aesthetic camera angle that hide the rest of the world for you to see. Heck even in SH4, they still use tank control!"

Performance wise, the game seems hold well even though i play it on Win7 last time. I was worried because the game are said to be so unstable and crash a lot if the OS is x64. But i don't bump into any of it for some reason. I never try it on Win10 but hey, if it doesn't work, there's emulation, come on, where else you gonna run to?

The graphic might not be impressive than what we have now (or the future unless KONAMI remember they make good cash out of this franchise in casino). Yet this dated graphic somehow become charm of its own in horror space. In fact, we've seen a lot of PS1 aesthetic horror and despite all that, the game manage to retain the fame of their own because they put front of the horror be it from storyline, or the vibe like Amnesia did years ago. In which SH2 manage to stay relvant to this day as the most memorable and perhaps influential game in horror department. 

But in rare case, whenever someone ask about what SH2 is all about in their horror, i can't help but think that SH2 show us that there's no greater horror...than becoming human monster.

Elena, shutting off...

Edited June 10, 2023 by Elena Ichinomiya

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Ahh~ video game showcase. One of the shows which force us to pick who is a letdown and who is the wackiest. Believe me, if you expect banger of a shows, you won't find it in today game showcase because that trophy are only owned by E3. You see, a few screws up going on more often when there's too much chef in the kitchen. But today, those chef has their own kitchen to showcase their stuff. But let's not dawdle about it and get to the point shall we? 

BAMCO Western Slam, P3R Leak, CAPCOM Showcase Thoughts

Let's start off with BAMCO or Bandai Namco. Weeks ago, their channel upload trailer for Brian Fury for Tekken 8. Seems like nothing wrong there but actually there is. You see, that trailer you see today was not the first. The very first trailer for Brian Fury was...UGLY. By UGLY, i mean the character. It's as if the character wasn't finished and just put there as placeholder; because it is. To add more cherry on top, the trailer was released without consent from BAMCO Japan. And if we know Japan, screw up on office could equal death...for your career, not life, what do you think this is? Anyway, BAMCO Japan slam BAMCO western branch for releasing the trailer too early when its clearly not finished yet. So yeah, the first Brian Fury trailer are officially lost media now. 

As if kick to the shin wasn't enough, ATLUS somehow got themselves shot in the foot for leaking the trailer for P3R early. But unlike BAMCO, ATLUS screw up are hold on their own account. No one knows why and how that got released but at the very least the trailer shows a working game. Thing is, both ATLUS and fans are not very happy about this, me included. I personally don't like the leak because one, it kill the hype, two...ATLUS now have to work twice to meet the standard for that trailer alone. At least the leak is not a hoax but eh...i just want the dev to work at their own pace you know? Whoever screw that up should know the fear of NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) because there's no excuse for this. Better setup that takoyaki stand again Parker, its on you.

Moving on, i'm no fan of CAPCOM nor hate them. But i do bump their showcase and see what's up. I'll be real with you here, i don't expect anything from them despite my play hour on Monster Hunter World/Rise, DMC 4/5 and a few on RE series, i don't expect any new stuff from them. They had it going with RE4R guys, give those folks some breathing room. Honestly if you ask me what game i might get excited just a little, is LOST PLANET 1 port/remake. But i would be a great hypocrite asking port/remake so i won't hold my breath to see it ever happen. Like i said, CAPCOM is entering remake cycle once again, you should expect more port/remake than new stuff in their showcase, though at least you guys got Dragon Dogma.

Speaking of MH series, i did read the news of MHR end content for that game. Of course this put a bit of frown on my face but not that deep. Keep in mind MHR was a port game from switch, shouldn't expect much. What put a frown to my face is, someone at CAPCOM promise 2 more EP going and here we are, bumped at dead end. I do have theory that the reason for the end content is because CAPCOM realize that MHR on switch couldn't handle much of a size for another EP. Not to mention the space. If those EP really came out, the game would make Call of Duty blush and that's a game for a switch without any competition going on to justify the size. So they opt to bail while they ahead. "But Elena! They can just press on! They just won't!" you say. If they were to do that, that mean they will leave the Switch player hanging while the PC and other platform get more meat. Switch playerbase won't be happy with that. Just being honest here, after so much playing MHR, i feel like playing God Eater than Monster Hunter. I did claim MHW is a bit loose in gameplay compared to the classic but MHR just...jump there, get the sugar tits to extend your health and stamina and fight on. No chase, no tracking...no immersive hunting and attack animation? I don't know, i just like the fact that i can blast Anjanath face with bowgun in MWH while in MHR i only shoot for the hell of it...anyway!

Just want to put it here, CAPCOM only good at making arcade-like games in nutshell than making game with meaningful progression like RPG, you probably can see why. It's been like that since they were around but hey, i won't complaint, they did their franchise justice and i like arcade genre too!

...i still want to talk more about gaming. So let's talk about...

Thoughts On P3R?
I'm no avid fan of this series; i still regret a little playing 4 and hesitate to buy 5. But i won't slam the series for that, there's still something i like about this franchise so i can't fully hate them. Now then...

I didn't ask anything from ATLUS other than delivering the game as they promised. And yes, i don't give slightest care for FES addition and FeMC existence. "But Elena! You play those games and enjoying it! Why don't you jump on the wish list train!?" you said, but as i mentioned on previous thread when P3P for PC release, without these two addition, the core of the game don't change much and FES existence are nothing more than excuse for more play hour and challenge mode to me. Don't get me started but if i play FES today, i would skip the game entirely because i don't have that much time to grind. Sure grinding in RPG was normal but we talking about grind on a single player experience game. It was a good thing i play that game when i'm still a junior high school so i can experience it; and get traumatized, not by the story but the grind.

If ATLUS decide to add FES element in the end, i wouldn't mind that, i still consider buying it. Though if there's more meat in that regard on P3R, i might give FES another try; and hold my temper since FES story put every character into dumber version of themselves. 

Thoughts On P3R Reaction?
They might expect too much. You know, the same song and dance of, "If there's nothing i like here, i boycott" stuff. Hah, who are you guys, activist? Anyway, i do respond at some comment who ask genuinely why FES receive mixed to bad reception. Here's what i told them...

1. FES last you 30 hours of gameplay. Putting that on main game and you got 80-90 play hours. Unless you're game streamer, completionist channel, or had a lot of time at hand, i bet you won't bother with FES at all considering the story isn't that important on the franchise lore.
2. Every characters act like moron version of themselves, Yukari is the biggest victim of this. Koromaru might be the saving grace from this issue, if you just believe or desperate that is...
3. The gameplay system remain the same, only more restricted.
4. No social link.
5. No free roaming, just pure dungeon crawl from start to finish. Considering you were offered a lot on main game, this is a kick to the shin.
6. The story progression don't feel much rewarding considering that you grind a lot to progress. The ending felt unpolished as it still leave me personally unsatisfied and literally asking if this mean anything. At least its not another cliffhanger or sequel bait.
7. Not even other persona spin off (PQ series, P4Arena, Dancing Series) mentioned anything regarding FES event, not even Metis is mentioned. I might be wrong though.

With that in mind, i also have my theory why FES is cut. Simple answer really, why you put content that most people won't bother? Not only it add more production cost considering now everything is motion captured (i assume), voice acted, and rendering the dungeon which take a lot of time and space on your SSD for the texture alone, it would be too much to justify the price for the final release. Its sweet of ATLUS if they reconsider to add FES at last minute but like i said, i rather let them do what they know they doing than putting my taste above someone artistry.

What about the FeMC you might ask? Yeah, that was one lost potential sales there for sure. But hey, this is P3R, not P3PR.

Why Showcase Been Letdown Lately?
Honestly when i watch game showcase, i didn't expect my favorite game got sequel release, remake, port, rebrand, become pachinko machine and other reason that i can't address them all. For me, showcase is an event where a company make a promise to their customer and assure them they doing their job as a company. Nothing more. Sure in marketing, this would earn boost but at the end of the day, that's just it.

Let's set aside CAPCOM showcase but instead talking about State of Play. There's obvious cry going on after the showcase and i have to admit it kind of is. My reason is not because there's no interesting game. Don't get me wrong, i feel excited when i see trailer for Shadow Blade due to its face pace action, thought its clear we gonna get another sir-die-a-lot genre from the visual alone. Hopefully i'm wrong. The reason of my let down is because they show a little of what they doing at the moment. What project is their priority? What plan ahead for their own game expansion? At least they did show one with Spiderman but trailer alone won't speak for everyone. At least in CAPCOM showcase, the team explain what they intend to do with their soon-to-be released game and hold onto it. SoP didn't have that but instead they show us THAT little gadget that would last 2 hour...Sony, you want me to buy your console or not!?

So yeah, the showcase we've had this year been let down but at least its because of poor presentation, not the lack of product that will soon enter our library or wish list. Like i said, if you want total banger of showcase, look to the past which is E3. We won't have that moment anymore just to hear the release date of Skyrim. I'm not joking.

But let's look at the bright side! Having crappy showcase doesn't mean the end of the world! Such as Playstation being a confused mess, or XBOX still trying so hard to convince people to buy game pass instead of fixing the game content in that game pass, and Nintendo busy themselves converting their company into butthurt lawyer firm against emulation who run a game they no longer released because they never bother after profiting from releasing a game about throwing a blondie off the skies!

See? The video game sector are doing fine! When we start to believe!

Well, i think that much about it for now. Showcase might be a let down, company could make mistake here and there, some win, some lose, but at the end of the day, we have something worth to do while waiting our anticipated game. 

Elena, shutting off~